


hunger is quiet (if you do it right)

by karadeniz



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Light Angst, Mutual Pining, Set after Season 4, Unresolved Tension, tenzin and lin are two good beans who try their best
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-27
Updated: 2020-01-02
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:34:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 30,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21978151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/karadeniz/pseuds/karadeniz
Summary: Lin's job is hell, Tenzin tries to help -- going crime solving with your ex, what could go wrong? (The answer is plenty, of course, you know the drill.)
Relationships: Lin Beifong & Tenzin, Lin Beifong/Tenzin
Comments: 55
Kudos: 187





	1. Under Fire

Lin stepped out into the fresh air, away from the liveliness of Tenzin's home, relieved when the chattering voices turned quieter. She took deep breaths, enjoying the cool breeze and the stillness. She remembered those days in her youth when she had gotten home from a long day at work, jumped into the shower, only to get changed quickly to show up at a family gathering, or a social event, or a public function – spirits knew there were many. And as the daughter of the Chief, one of Team Avatar's kids, and girlfriend of the second last Airbender she was to attend all of them, unless work had held her up.

Nowadays her job prevented her from having a private life more than not, but Suyin had made it clear that she would not tolerate work as an excuse for Lin not to show. It was Opal's Airbending master ceremony after all.

So Lin had rushed to the Island with only half an hour delay, to be greeted by Su's frown before she had pulled her into the house. That had been three hours ago, and Lin was tired. She shook her head at herself, because eighteen hours of work she could do, but a few hours of socializing and she already felt drained. Suyin had implored her to be agreeable, and that had gone fairly well so far. She didn't have to do much socializing to begin with because years of building up a reputation and a grim expression that came to her as naturally now as breathing stopped most people from approaching her, even in a private setting and without her armor. Most people knew what was good for them. To her dismay, 'most people' did not include Opal's boyfriend, and after listening to Bolin talk about his new mover for fifteen minutes, which he described in length and detail, she'd already gone through the five stages of grief and was ready for the ground to swallow her whole to escape this party. Eventually, Mako had saved her by pulling his brother along and giving her a small smile, and she'd taken that window gratefully to discreetly slip out. That was how she had ended up sitting on the stone stairs just slightly secluded from Tenzin's home, the dark water and Republic City's lights laid out in front of her.

She felt his light footsteps through the ground beneath her palms before he came to a halt beside her.

"Thought I'd find you here. You could never stand a social gathering for long."

"What are you talking about," she replied dryly, "I'm having the time of my life."

Tenzin chuckled. "Long day?"

"When is it not." She cracked her shoulder blades emphatically. "I'm glad to be here though. I'm very proud of Opal."

"As am I." She could hear the smile in his words. "Come back inside with me? I think they're ready to cut the cake."

"You go, I'm gonna stay here for just another minute."

He didn't walk back though, but instead took a seat on the step next to her. She gave him a side-glance, and then squinted her eyes at him suddenly.

"Is that the robe your mother gave you for Izumi's wedding, what, like 30 years ago?"

He looked at her a little sheepishly and she snorted. "I'm surprised it still fits."

"And I am surprised that you didn't come in your uniform," he countered good-naturedly, before taking a closer look at her. "Su?"

"Ha. Pretty obvious, huh?"

"Pretty much so, yes," he said with a chuckle.

She made a grumbling sound in the back of her throat and tugged absently at her hair. Her relationship with her sister was still rocky, and despite making an effort, Su was an expert at pushing all her buttons. But in the end, she bore her sister no ill will, and it became easier every day to let go of the resentment that had been eating at her for so long. Su had been insistent that she would help her older sister get ready for her daughter's ceremony. Maybe she also hadn't trusted Lin to show up in regular clothes; most people seemed to assume she didn't own any in the first place. Despite rumors, she didn't actually sleep in her armor. But she didn't get much sleep in an actual bed either, so there was that.

Lin had no real problem with wearing fancier clothes. It was different, was all. She had gotten so used to seeing herself in her uniform, and the simple waves in which her hair fell, never bothering to put any more effort into her appearance than what was practical for her job. The side parting that Su had given her for tonight and the sensation of hair brushing her forehead had become almost unfamiliar to her, and yet it stirred a feeling of deep-hidden memories of days long gone.

Tenzin must have felt her discomfort, because he laid a hand on her elbow. "It looks very nice."

She raised her chin to look at him. There was nothing in his eyes but a deep-rooted kindness and the impression of being _known_. It used to make her feel warm, a long time ago. That, too, was familiar, and she quickly turned her head.

They fell into a comfortable silence, reveling in the calm. He gazed into the distance, enjoying the breeze coming from the sea, and she rested her hands on the stone steps they were sitting on, nothing on her mind but the feeling of the cool earth beneath her and the warmth coming from Tenzin sitting next to her. Lin knew that they would have to go back inside soon. Soon, but not yet. Her eyes drifted close. The toils of the day were starting to catch up with her, and she wondered if she could leave the party early and make it to her own bed before midnight, maybe catch a good five hours of sleep. An irregular throb beneath her palms snapped her back to attention and a second later she realised it was Tenzin's heartbeat that had changed.

She saw his eyebrows draw together as he stared across the sea where Republic City lay and turned to follow his gaze. That was when she saw it. A thick cloud of smoke rising over the rooftops and blending into the pitch black night sky.

"Shit," she muttered under her breath and leapt to her feet.

"Want me to fly you over?" he asked as he hastened beside her, back inside.

"Would you?" She went into the guest room that her sister was staying at and returned with her uniform on.

On her way back into the hall she nearly collided with Su.

"Where are you going," she asked immediately, "and why are you in your armor? You're off the clock!"

"Tell that to the criminals, would ya," Lin muttered as she pushed past her sister.

"I'm sorry, honey. I gotta go, too." Tenzin shot his wife an apologetic look. "We'll be back once we've figured out what's going on."

They hurried down the steps into the courtyard. Lin turned to the path leading towards the stables but Tenzin stopped her, and when she looked back she noticed the glider in his hand. 

"It's faster," he said apologetically.

She groaned inwardly but put her arms around his shoulders nevertheless and he pushed them up into the air. It had been a while since they had done this, but their years together had taught her how to hold on and shift her weight with his movements to not distract him or weigh him down, and this way they reached the other shore in less than ten minutes.

* * *

It wasn't difficult to locate the source of the fire and Tenzin landed right amid the first responders. Waterbender units were trying to extinguish the flames while healers took care of the civilians. Lin immediately sought out her police forces to get a report on the situation and give further instructions. Tenzin went wherever he was needed.

It took another one and a half hours for the flames to stop. Many were injured, some severely, but none dead, which was a great relief. The building was still standing, too. Lin's Metalbending officers had done everything in their power to ensure the structure would not collapse into itself and risk crushing the aides working on the scene.

When Lin returned she was dusted with soot, ash blackening her hair and trails of sweat running down her face, leaving streaks.

"Here," he offered her a bottle of water, which she emptied quickly.

"Do we know what caused it?"

"Not yet. Forensics are still working on it. We have a few witnesses, but some of them need medical attention, and rest, so we're gonna start the questioning in the morning."

He shot her a concerned glance, taking in all the subtle signs of how exhausted she really was.

"You should get rest, too."

She waved him off dismissively. "This isn't over yet, and I'm needed here."

"Lin –," he tried again.

"Stop fretting, Tenzin," she snapped, "one shower and I'm as good as new. You should head back to your family, though. It's getting late, and I'm sure they're worried."

With one last pointed look she strode back to the scene, and he watched her figure disappear between helpers and smoke, before he opened his glider and set off, for home.

* * *

From that night on, things only got worse. As it turned out, forensics found nothing. No indication on how and why the fire had started. It was like the flames had appeared out of nowhere, as was the case for the fires that followed. In less than two weeks there had been eight fires all over the city, and the paperwork was piling up on her desk. Most people assumed the Agni Kai were behind the attacks and blamed the police for their inability to stop them.

The outrage was so great that one day President Raiko had come marching into Lin's office to confront her. She wished he would keep his voice down but bit back any response to his accusations of her shortcomings, as well as the urge to let the ground he stood on swallow him. If he needed to get this out of his system, she wouldn't stop him. The most frustrating thing about it was the she couldn't give him a good reason why they hadn't been able to reign the fires in, apart from that they literally did not know why they were happening in the first place.

There was a knock and Tenzin appeared in the doorway. He seemed unsure whether to enter, no doubt having heard the dispute. She waved him in without looking.

"You must understand that I am in a very difficult position," Raiko continued, unbothered by the audience, "the city appreciates everything your esteemed mother and you have done for it, but the public needs to know they are safe, Chief Beifong, and if you and your units can't ensure that then I'll be forced to look for other options. I realise how stressful this job is. So why don't you take a vacation, let your deputy handle this crisis and come back when it's settled."

"Sir, the attacks have started under my watch, and I'll be the one to finish them." She met him with an unwavering stare, mindful not to blink until the moment she saw him budge. He didn't last long.

"Then finish them. If you don’t get this situation under control, Chief, you’ll leave me no choice but to take the necessary steps."

"Yes, Sir."

"Good."

"No, absolutely not good."

Tenzin had followed the entire exchange closely, and his mild irritation had grown into full blown anger.

"I don’t care for your tone, Sir. Chief Beifong has done more for this city than anybody, long before you came into the picture, she puts her life on the line every day for this city and its citizens without asking for anything in return, so the least you could do is show some modesty and respect. We will handle this situation, I assure you, but not for your sake. Now if you’ll excuse us –"

Raiko stared at him, his expression somewhere between stunned and outraged, but he must have realised there was nothing he could do to Tenzin, whose status as a public figure was untouchable, so he turned and left, though not without shooting Lin another nasty look.

"Can you believe his audacity!" Tenzin threw his hands up as soon as the door fell shut. "Who does he think he is? His entire presidency is a charade for the public to make himself look good while leaving the hard work to others – first Korra, then you. And he never takes any responsibility, like a good leader should. It's a shame he – "

His rant stopped when he turned to look at her, rather startled to see her looking up at him with a frown and arms crossed. Then he noticed the mess of loose papers scattered across the floor, an unwitting side effect of an Airbender's outburst, and turned his eyes back to her apologetically.

"I'm so sorry about that – I didn't realise –, here let me," he started to lean forward to gather up the paper sheets, but she interceded harshly.

"Don't bother. _I got this._ "

He picked up on her anger immediately and turned back to her, confused.

"What's going on?"

"You should have stayed out of it," she emphasized.

"You're angry at _me_? I'm on your side."

"I don't need you to take any sides. This was an issue between me and Raiko, and I don’t need you to fight my battles, Tenzin.“

"I wasn’t trying to."

"This was about me," she repeated, forcing herself to take a deep breath, "not you. You should have just let it go. Now I’m in even more trouble, because if Raiko doesn’t find a way to get back at you, he’ll make sure to get back at me. I'm not yet retired, and I'd prefer it to stay that way."

She saw his shoulders slack. "I'm sorry, Lin," he said rather bashfully, "I didn't think that far. I was just so furious at hearing him talk to you like that."

"It was nothing I couldn't handle."

"You shouldn't have to, though. It isn't right."

She blew a frustrated breath of air through her nose. "Hate to break your bubble, but that's not how the world works."

"Well, as your friend, you can't expect me to idly stand by and let people say such hurtful things."

She wanted to continue arguing, but suddenly she felt too tired to antagonise the one person who gave enough of a crap to stand up for her. So she just sighed.

"Nevermind. It’s fine." She tried to put some humour in her voice. "Mean words bounce right off of me, didn't you get the memo? I’m a bitch with a rock-hard heart."

She bit back the memories of her mother telling her to quit whining when she asked about her father. The hours waiting for her teenage sister to come home way past midnight and Suyin calling her controlling. The headlines _Last Airbender leaves steely Chief of Police_ _for younger woman._

"That's what people think anyway."

It was little more than a soft exhale, because he _knew_ , and he took a step forward to reach out for her hand and enveloped it with his own. It was something he'd used to do, when they'd both been younger. Even before they'd started dating, and she would come to him with her fists clenched after butting heads with her mother, or Su, he had never met her with any resistance, only compassion, and her fist would open under his palm. She wondered if he remembered. Her blood was pulsing against his thumb where it rested against her wrist. "Not me. Never."

The sharp ring of the telephone made her jump away from him and she quickly leaned over her desk for the receiver.

"Beifong," she snapped.

She listened to the voice on the other side of the line while absently rubbing her wrist against linen of her pants. An arrest on illegal trading, apparently, again. And the suspects were being brought in. Good, she thought. Functional and straight-forward crimes, motivated by greed, a simple pattern and just the right thing to distract her from the hell that was breaking loose right under her nose, even if only for a few hours. "I'll be right down," she told her officer and hung up before turning back to Tenzin.

"I gotta go. I'm sorry, why did you come to my office again?"

"It can wait," he said immediately. "It's just bureaucracy matters." She didn't ask him why he'd felt the need to show up in person when he could've easily discussed it with her over the phone. She didn't really care.

"Very well then. Will you show yourself out?"

"Of course. I will come back tomorrow then, so we can decide on how to proceed."

She put her hands on her hips. "What are you talking about?"

"Solving the case," he clarified. "Finding out the truth about the fires. I did say I would assist you."

"I figured you just said that so that Raiko would leave me alone," she said slowly, still not sure if he was being serious.

"Well yes, that too. But I mean it. Come on, Lin," he said, when he saw the skeptical expression on her face, "I can see how frustrated you are –"

"Right now, you're the one getting me frustrated," she muttered which he amicably ignored and continued, "– and maybe another perspective, outside of the police force, is just the key to solving this case. So let me try to help. There's no harm in trying."

She wanted to keep arguing, to tell him he was being an idiot and kick him out of her office, but he was doing that thing with his face where he went all sympathetic and kind and it made it hard to be harsh. She scowled because she was pretty sure he knew exactly what he was doing.

"Fine," she finally growled, "do what you want."

"Wonderful. I'll see you tomorrow then," he told her and left her standing in her office, wondering what she had just gotten herself into.

* * *

Lin knew it was inevitable to go back to the crime scenes. Out of the eight fires, all of them had occurred on the West Side, so that was where Lin and Tenzin were planning to go. Lin knew they must have overlooked something, or maybe they simply hadn't interrogated the right people. It was impossible for someone to start eight fires without a single soul noticing. Tenzin had readily agreed on accompanying her on her investigation. When he had come into her office he had been in an almost suspiciously good mood, and she'd narrowed her eyes at him.

After a quick look at the map they decided to start with the last case and then work their way chronologically back to the first night.

Before they left, Lin made a quick list of instructions that she was going to leave for her officers while she was gone. Just in case. They usually managed well when she was gone for a while, but she wouldn't leave it to chance.

"You know, this is going to be fun," Tenzin declared from behind her. She turned back at him and raised an eyebrow. She knew he had been in too good a mood as soon as he'd entered.

"Which part?" she asked dryly.

"Remember when your mom sent you to investigate the robbery at that old antique book shop and you let me tag along –?"

"– only because you complained I wasn't spending enough time with you."

"– and we had to question a bunch of people?"

"Where you conveniently got sidetracked and ended up talking to the bookshop keeper about some ancient scrolls while leaving all the work to me?"

"Yes, and then he accidentally gave away that he had 'stolen' the ancient scrolls himself for insurance fraud."

"Because you talked him to death, Airnerd. He probably thought prison would be the lesser torment."

She tried to sound annoyed but had to fight the smirk creeping into the corners of her mouth.

"That's very rude," he complained in feigned outrage, but couldn't hold it for more than two seconds before he grinned.

She shook her head at him before turning more serious again.

"I have a feeling that this one will be nothing like that."

"Then let's just make the most of it," he said and headed for the door.

"Where do you think you're going?" she asked and he turned back to her, confused.

"Investigating?"

"Dressed like that?" She gave his air nomad clothing a pointed look. "I don't think so. Here, wear these."

She walked over to a large wooden closet and handed him a grey coat and a matching hat.

"Why?"

He looked positively baffled and she raised an eyebrow at his innocent cluelessness. "We’re going to the West Side of the city, Tenzin, they’re not exactly fond of the upper class there, or the police, for that matter. They're not gonna welcome us with open arms, and they sure as hell won’t tell us anything if you’re walking around like a 6'4 fire dragon lily."

"Oh. Well, alright then." He pulled on the coat. "Better?"

She pushed the hat over his blue arrow. "Unrecognisable," she deadpanned. "Now c’mon, Airhead, let’s go."

"I’m coming. Oh, hold on," she heard him call, "did you just compare me to a flower?" and she rolled her eyes with a smile because he sounded far too pleased.

* * *

They traveled to the West City in her Satomobile. He'd protested, until she had pointed out that if one thing stood out more than his _'bald arrowhead'_ it was a flying bison, and he'd grudgingly relented. He might be old-fashioned, but he never understood what people saw in Satomobiles, which, in his opinion, were uncontrollable metal boxes, and there were too many of them. He couldn't deny though that he took some pleasure in watching Lin drive. Even on a crowded street she navigated it with such ease, as if it was the most simple thing in the world. Then again, in here she truly was surrounded by her element. He supposed she was as comfortable in a Satomobile as he was in the air with his glider or Oogie, and her poise made him lean back into his seat and almost enjoy the ride until they arrived.

It was as Lin had predicted. Their investigation went neither easy nor swift. Most people didn't seem to want to talk to them at all, and those who were willing didn't have anything relevant or new to say, apart from that nobody had actually seen anyone setting the buildings on fire. Lin's frown grew gradually deeper and deeper, and he, too, had lost most of his previous zeal.

After they'd come to the seventh crime scene on their list with no results to show for, Lin let her pent up frustration out when she kicked a small bollard on the sidewalk and then shot the bump an irritated look before bending it back into shape.

"We've been out here for six hours, we've talked to at least fifty people, and we got nothing. _Nothing._ Maybe Raiko is right, maybe I am too old for this, because clearly there's something big that I'm missing here."

She was pacing up and down the sidewalk and he saw her knuckles whiten as she balled her hands into fists.

"What am I missing, Tenzin? I don't get it. It can't be Agni Kai, I _know_ it's not them, I've fought them for decades and this doesn't carry their thumbprint. And I'm sure I would have heard if there was a new Triad in town. Besides, it's not like they seem to be targeting anything specific. And if it had been some amateurish cases of arson, or negligence, forensics would have found _something._ "

She let out another growl and Tenzin, who had followed Lin's line of sight, stopped her stride before she could abuse the bollard again, taking her by the shoulders and turning her to face him.

"I know you're feeling frustrated right now, you're under a lot of pressure. The important thing is–",

"Tenzin, I swear, if you're gonna say that I'm trying I'm gonna smack you." She shook his hands from her shoulders and pointed a finger at him. " _No_ inspirational pep talks." 

He raised his arms in appeasement. "Alright, alright. Oh look, there's a tea shop on the other side." He pointed over her shoulder at a little house diagonally across from their position. "Let's go check it out. Maybe they've seen something."

Lin snorted, the frown finally slipping from her face. "Nice diversion, fibber. You know you can just say you want some tea," but she followed him readily.

The shop owner greeted them when they stepped inside. The room wasn't crowded, but there were a good ten people seated at various tables– mostly elderly customers, drinking tea, smoking a pipe and playing Pai Sho. The place appeared well taken care of, Tenzin noticed happily, and he turned his eyes to the menu board over the counter.

"So much for investigation," Lin teased as she came up beside him.

"There's still time for that, after we've had a cup. Oh look, they've got Purple Ginseng!"

Suddenly there was a shuffling noise of a dozen feet behind them and a male voice barked, "Nobody move, this is a hold-up!"

They both turned at the commotion, his eyebrows raised in surprise, while Lin seemed to have resigned to their bad luck immediately. 

The people inside the tea shop were mustered into a corner, huddled together, while the raiders – six of them in total– began locking the door and windows.

With her hands on her hips, Lin shot him a sour look. "We just _had_ to come in here."

"I – don't look at me, this isn't my fault. It's not like I could have known –," he began defensively, but he got interrupted by a loud shout.

"You two, over there with the others!"

One of the men had stepped forward, a flame dancing in his open palm, and motioned for Tenzin and Lin to move to the group.

Tenzin looked down at Lin in bemusement at the overly confident attitude the man was displaying in front of them, before realisation hit him.

"They don't know who we are, do they?"

"Well, don't give our disguises too much credit," she replied dryly, "I don't think they're the brightest."

"Stop talking to each other and move over to the other wimps. Did you hear me, grandpa," the guy yelled and shot a fireball in Tenzin's direction that he sidestepped lightly, but Lin snapped. 

"Alright, that's it," she growled and slipped off her coat. "Not on my fucking watch."

She cracked her knuckles and her armor flashed as she stepped forward.

"Listen up," she yelled, "I'm Chief Beifong. It's been a long day and I'm not in the mood to play, so do yourself a favor and turn yourselves in."

The criminals seemed taken aback, but only for a second before moving into fighting stances. Tenzin looked at Lin who gave him a shrug in return. "T'was worth a try."

Lin didn't wait for the men to throw their first punch, without hesitating she kicked one of the tables in their direction that forced them to break apart. The thugs started throwing their attacks at Lin and him, and they stood back to back redirecting and countering their opponents punches. Tenzin was faced with two Earthbenders and a Firebender, while Lin took on the other three men. They were clearly outnumbered, but Tenzin's first impression of the men had been right, their fighting techniques were bold and mediocre at best. However, even a slight distraction could be fateful, especially with civilians in the room, and he got reminded of that the hard way when the Firebender he was battling threw a flame in his direction that he diverted easily, before he realised his mistake. Tenzin saw the fireball fly towards the people cowering in a corner and at last moment he did a flip over the Firebender's head and landed in front of the crowd right in time to block it, before sending a blast of air in the bender's direction, which knocked him right off his feet. He saw Lin on the other side of the room fighting two of the remaining thugs at once. Three were already down, including the one he just knocked over. Which left – one more.

Tenzin didn't have to wonder long, because in that moment, the man dropped from the ceiling a few feet away from him and kicked a giant boulder in his direction. Unable to jump out of the way _and_ protect the civilians kneeling behind him he did the only thing he could – he widened his stance and prepared for the impact of the rock. It pushed him several inches backwards, but his feet remained solid on the ground and the rock came to a hold in midair before dropping to the ground with a loud rumble. The Earthbender raised his hands, obviously prepared to take another shot, but before he could summon any rock a metal cable wrapped itself around his waist and in the next moment he got yanked off his feet and pitilessly slammed against the opposite wall. Tenzin hadn't realised Lin had kept an eye on him as well as fighting her own battle, but he shouldn't be surprised – when things got rough you could always trust a Beifong to have your back, his father used to say, and he had yet to be proven wrong.

The other two men, he noticed, were already constrained and Lin was currently dragging the Firebender that Tenzin had fought across the floor to add him to the bundle. He knelt down to talk to the civilians still affected from the fight, asking them if they were alright, if anyone had been hurt, and assure them that help was on its way.

Shortly after, Lin's officers and a healer arrived on the scene and she immediately started giving them instructions on how to proceed. It was after both of their tasks were undertaken by other people that he took the time to check on her.

"You okay?" he asked, touching her arm to get her attention.

"Sure." She waved him off. "Fucking amateurs. They're the C League of the Triads. No skill or brain, just a lot of ego and bad intentions. And there's always too many of them. Ah, well." She sighed before shooting him a sly look.

"I gotta say, you took that rock head on back there," and he was pleased to note that she really did sound impressed. "Not bad at all for a twinkle toe."

He grinned. "Well, you know, I had a girlfriend once who used to kick my butt mercilessly in gym, so I had to pick up a thing or two."

She pursed her lips at him, but the slight twitch in the corners gave her away.

"Well, she's not your girlfriend anymore, but she could still kick your ass."

"No doubt about that," he said with a glint in his eyes and this time she did smile back.

* * *

They stepped out into the street again after Lin's officers had taken the six men away for detainment, and Tenzin had repeatedly apologised to the tea shop owner for the destruction they had caused, but the man had assured him he was grateful for their help and had declared Lin and Tenzin were welcome to come back any time. Since they had left the tea shop in quite a state, they didn't get to take the time to sit down. It was a pity, he thought, he really could have done with a break.

Lin seemed to share the sentiment. "I say we call it a day," she sighed.

"Yes," he agreed half-heartedly. He was exhausted, but he didn't like returning empty handed. In the last six hours he had been hopeful that by the end of the day, they would have made some progress, and to realise that they hadn't achieved anything was disappointing. He shot Lin a quick glance, and he could practically see the pressure weighing down on her. He knew she would not allow herself any real rest before she'd found whoever was responsible for the attacks. And with Raiko breathing down her neck, even more so. He caught himself thinking that he would gladly keep going for another six hours if it meant he could take the weight off her shoulders.

They made their way back to the car, and had barely rounded the corner when they came face to face with an old woman who stood on the doorstep in front of a small house.

"Are you Master Tenzin?" she asked with a brittle voice.

He exchanged a brief look with Lin before he replied, "That I am."

"We were just about to leave," Lin cut in, narrowing her eyes at the old lady.

"Ah, yes. I think you'll wanna stay around a little bit longer. You're trying to find out more about these fires happening all around the neighbourhood, aren't you? Well, I've got a story for you about that."

"You do?" Tenzin could feel some of his former hope rushing back. "Chief Beifong and I would be very interested to hear it, wouldn't we, Lin?"

Lin gave no indication that she was as optimistic about it as he was. She crossed her arms in front of her and looked at the woman sharply. "What is it you want to tell us?"

The elderly lady didn't seem deterred by Lin's stern demeanour and just clicked her tongue. "This is a story that shouldn't be told on one's threshold. Can I invite you both in for some tea?"

"No," replied Lin and the same time that Tenzin enthusiastically said, "Yes, please."

The old woman gave them an amused look as she scurried inside and gestured for them to follow her.

Lin didn't move an inch and shot Tenzin a threatening look, mouthing the word _No_ at him, but he met her eyes with an excited glee and took her hand to pull her along inside the old woman's house.  
Something hissed up at him and when he looked down a rust-coloured cat with an enormous mane bared its sharp little teeth at him. He gingerly stepped over it and into the small kitchen, where a round wooden table stood at the heart of it. The old woman gestured for Lin and him to take a seat and placed two steaming cups in front of them.

"You have a lovely home," he commented and the woman gave him a warm smile.

"That's very kind of you, Master Tenzin. You know, back in my youth I had the pleasure of seeing your father, the Avatar once. He did a lot of good. And you seem to be following in his footsteps alright."

"Thank you," he managed to say, feeling emotion well up in him at her words. He could feel Lin's eyes on him and he knew she would have called him sappy if she didn't miss Aang as much as he did.

"And he was so charismatic, really. You know, I was a young girl back then and I briefly considered joining the acolytes after that. The teachings of the Airbender culture have ever been so fascinating, but of course it did help that he was so very easy on the eyes." She tilted her head at him.

"You look a lot like him, actually."

Tenzin felt heat rise up to his ears. "Oh, um. Thank you – I mean. That's very, ah –"

He turned to Lin for help, who had leaned back into her seat, arms crossed, and she seemed immensely torn between fighting the urge to throttle the woman and letting her continue just to watch him squirm. He sighed in relief when, in the end, she took pity on him.

"So what's the important thing you wanted to tell us about?"

"Oh, right, about that. On the same night that the fire broke out, I saw something really suspicious. Now, I usually don't go out that late at night. This isn't the kinda neighbourhood that you would want to walk around in by yourself if you're not up to no good yourself. If you wanna stay out of trouble, you best stay at home when it gets dark outside. Besides, I like to go to bed at a reasonable time, you see. These old bones aren't as fit as they used to be. Anyway, that night I couldn't sleep and Meo, too, was fussing like he got stung by a bee. Meo is my lion-cat, you see. Very docile and well-behaved most of the time, for a cat." Tenzin shot the cat a glance, and it looked back at him like it was planning on murdering him in his sleep. "He has kept me company for the last fifteen years, ever since my husband died. And he's got very good ears, there's nothing he wouldn't notice. It gives me a sense of security, no intruder could ever get in here without Meo noticing. And he may not look it, but he's got very sharp teeth and a bad temper when angered."

Next to him, Lin had been shifting increasingly, and he knew the poor woman was going to find out her cat wasn't the only one with a bad temper in this room, if she didn't hurry to get to the point.

"He kept sitting by the window, back hair bristled like a brush. So I got up to see what made him so anxious, and I looked out of the window. Now, it was raining so I didn't see much."

He saw Lin's hand flex and he covered it discreetly under the table with his own.

"But you did see something, yes?" he inquired.

"I did. I got up and went to the door, just to take a quick peek outside. And that's when I saw it. A spirit."

"A spirit?" Tenzin sat up in sudden interest.

"Yes. But one I've never seen like that before. Not glowing like the ones that came here after the young Avatar opened the portals. This one was more like a shadow. Like someone had captured smoke in a jar, shades of black bundled together in a body." She shuddered.

"What kind of form did it have?" Tenzin asked.

"Well, it wasn't very big. You know, some of these spirits are so tall. Makes you wonder how big the spirit world is. And they have odd shapes and forms. But this one didn't look like that. Looked like it had two arms and two legs, and a head on top. I might have assumed it was human if not –" She fell quiet again.

"If not for what?" Lin snapped, clearly having had enough of the woman's dramatised story-telling. 

The old woman looked up and there was something haunted in her eyes.

"– if not for the fact that it didn't have a face."

Tenzin felt a chill creeping up his spine, but Lin didn't seem impressed.

"Maybe it was a human wearing a mask," she argued.

"Oh no. Unless humans can walk through solid walls. Because that's what it did then, walked right through the brick wall into the house and next thing I saw was smoke coming out of the windows. Would have been much worse if it hadn't been raining so much, that's for sure. You know about vengeful ghosts, coming back after dying a violent death. I'm sure this poor soul has been through much that it now comes back to haunt the living."

There was a heavy pause where nobody said anything. Then Lin spoke up –

"And you're sure that's what you saw?" she asked, voice heavy with scepticism.

The old woman look Lin straight in the eyes, and any trace of eccentricity was gone. "Yes, child, I'm sure. I'm not blind – not entirely, anyway. It was a spirit, alright. And it's angry."

* * *

They walked down the promenade, the lights of the city reflecting on the black ocean water, and in the distance, the lights of the Island. It was a mild night, but the sea breeze brought a chilliness that made Lin instinctively pull her coat a little closer. Tenzin though didn't seem to notice, and he was unusually quiet as he gazed at the small flicker of lights coming from his home.

"Well," Lin said, "I don't know what I expected, but it wasn't that. We got nothing, apart from an eye witness who thinks she saw a ghost do it. If I tell _that_ to Raiko, he's not even gonna fire me, he's gonna send me straight to the madhouse. We got no way to prove what the woman saw– or thinks she saw, since it was dark, raining, and her eyesight is questionable, too, considering her age. And then there's the fact she's been withholding this information from us until today. Why would she only come forward with it now, if she has known this the entire time?"

"Because I was there," Tenzin interrupted her quietly. "She didn't think the police would know what to do with the information, but she trusted that I would."

He stopped their stroll to rest his elbows on the stone wall. Lin frowned slightly and came up beside him, leaning against the rocks with her back. 

"You okay?"

He sighed, and nodded.

"What's wrong?" she rephrased.

He met her eyes, and her heart went out to him as she saw the glum expression in his.

"Do you remember that time I went to the Earth Kingdom with my father and he took me to the statue of Hei Bai, to show me from where he entered into the Spirit World to talk to Avatar Roku? When we were there, I asked my father to teach me. To guide me, bring me with him. So we sat down, and meditated, and I just – couldn't do it."

"I remember," she said softly.

They'd been thirteen when Aang had taken Tenzin on that trip. He'd been gone two weeks and she had missed him terribly, and when they returned Tenzin had been miserable. His siblings had teased him for returning from a vacation even more stodgy than before. He'd told her that evening about his fear of failing his father, and she'd punched him and called him a baby and then had raced him to the cliff from which they used to leap into the water to swim with the flying dolphins. Lin had never been good with emotional pep talks, especially as a kid, but seeing how much it still troubled him, she wished she knew how to be there for him. 

His sigh shook her out of her thoughts. 

"Back then I thought, once I got older, some day I would reach that enlightenment. One day, I would become worthy of being a master. But look at me. I've studied spirituality my entire life, yet now I'm confronted with a single spirit and I don't know how to proceed. My father would know what to do. I wish I could ask him, but I can’t even find a connection to the spirit world! What kind of Airbending master does that make me? How could I possibly lead an entire nation if I cannot even do that?"

They were very quiet for a while, him lost in thought and her trying to find the right words, before she finally spoke.

"All our lives we tried so hard to become our parents, to measure up to them, follow in their footsteps, that sometimes I wonder if we've ever truly figured out who _we_ are – or what we want. And it's never quite enough, is it?" She took a deep breath, her eyes firmly trained on the cobbled pavement. "Everything I do is for this city and it's still crumbling apart underneath my feet. But I know that I love Republic City, and I'll do what's in my power to protect it. That is all I can do in the end. And I know, Tenzin, that there is no one in the world who has so much love, and so much respect for the Air Nation’s legacy like you do. And it's that love that makes you the best possible person to lead this new generation. You, and nobody else." She felt more than heard him inhale softly.

"You mean that?"

"Have I ever lied to you?"

She raised her head and wasn't prepared for the well of emotion, and affection, with which he looked down at her. Something in his eyes had changed, like he was seeing her again for the first time.

"Don't get all sentimental on me now, Airhead, you know I'm not good with that," she deflected, shifting uncomfortably under his gaze.

"Sorry, " he chuckled, but it still came out choked up.

He turned to lean against the wall next to her, his shoulder faintly brushing hers.

"I'm glad, you know," he said quietly. "Having you back in my life. I know I'm to blame for how things ended, but I'm grateful that you don't hate me anymore."

"I still hate you a little," she murmured, but it was only half-hearted.

He smiled. "That's fair."

The wind blew stronger and Lin pushed a few strands of hair behind her ear that had come loose. She could feel his eyes following the movement. 

"You never took it very seriously," he said suddenly. "Looking back I think it was good, you know. Because I took it too seriously, and it felt good to be around someone to who it didn't matter how good of an Airbender I was. Of course I still cared very much but sometimes... I thought 'Well, Lin doesn't care' and you were the coolest person I knew. Then it felt almost alright. What did you use to call it?"

"Spirit mumbo-jumbo."

"Yeah."

She crossed her arms and looked back at the city, where somewhere allegedly a vengeful ghost was running berserk.

"I rest my case."


	2. Chasing Ghosts

After their conversation with the woman, Lin was left with no choice but to follow up on the lead. She had come to a dead end in her investigation, and if this theory, as whacky and whimsical as it was, meant that she didn't have to admit defeat just yet, she would simply have to open her mind to the possibility. The world had changed a lot in the last five years after all. Maybe this was her life now: Chief of Police, arresting criminals and felonious spirits. She needed a drink.

"Chief."

A voice interrupted her thoughts, and Mako stood at her door. She waved him in and he took the seat opposite of hers, looking at her expectantly. She kept her eyes on the files in front of her, chin pressed against her folded hands, reluctant to speak something into existence that she knew she was not prepared to deal with. After the moment stretched into an uncomfortable silence, however, she finally met his eyes.

"I have a job for you," she said, "it's not an exciting one but I need to know you'll make it a priority regardless." She cleared her throat. "Councilman Tenzin and I might have a lead on the cases of arson."

"Really? What is it?" he exclaimed excitedly.

Lin bit the inside of her lip, before exhaling forcefully. "We think it might be a spirit."

Mako's eyebrows shot together in doubt and she couldn't hold it against him.

"I know. I'm not fond of that theory either. But there are... certain indicators, and we cannot ignore evidence just because we don't like it."

Mako nodded. "What do you want me to do?"

"Go through the archives and work through every case that included fires, intentional or unintentional. Concentrate on RP's West Side, since that is where the majority of the fires now have started. Look for any anomaly, cold cases... deaths." She shot him an apologetic look. "I know it's a tedious task for one person, but I need to know that someone will have a full picture. We can't miss any details."

He stood up straight with a solemn expression, "I will do my best, Chief."

She couldn't suppress a smile. "I know you will."

* * *

She had known how dedicated Mako was, and how serious he took every job she assigned him with. What she hadn't expected was for the boy to come bursting into her office after only two days, with an excited expression on his face.

"Chief! I think I found something," and he plopped a stack of papers onto her desk. "Five years ago, exactly on the day of Harmonic Convergence, there was a warehouse, down in West City by the docks, that caught on fire." He handed her the file. "Next day, we got a missing person report," he held up said report and Lin took it from him, "for a young girl by her mother. Wu Yifei, at that time aged 16, no criminal record, student, disappeared on that night. When her mother went into her room the next morning, she wasn't there, and when she didn't show up by the evening, she called the police. The girl has been missing ever since. There hasn't been a single trace of her, and they never found a body."

Lin nodded, vaguely remembering. "What makes you think this has something to do with our case now?"

"Because," he said, "about a year ago, her mother left Republic City. The house she lived in belongs to this man," he pointed at another file, "who rented it to three different families, and neither lived there longer than four months, before he tore it down. Now guess on which day that was?"

"The day of the first fire."

"Bingo."

Lin looked down at the file in her hands, and the photograph of a teenager stared back up at her. A young girl went missing on the same day as a fire broke loose and a giant spirit monster attacked. And five years later, a series of fires start, just hours after her childhood home was destroyed. It was absurd, and entirely conclusive in itself.

"Good job, Mako." She didn't even try to hide how impressed she was with him, and he beamed at her praise. The joy on his face wasn't enough to hide the shadows under his eyes though, and she didn't even want to ask how many hours he'd spent in the dusty archives. "Go home and get some rest, kid. You've earned it."

"Nah, I'm good," he replied. "I got the address of the landlord. Want me to come with you to question him?"

"No. Get some rest, detective, that's not a request. Don't let my bad habits rub off on you," she added when she saw him open his mouth again to protest and at that he grinned.

"You shouldn't go alone though," he said a little more soberly. "I don't feel good about the whole spirit stuff."

"Trust me, me neither." She sighed. "I'll ask Councilman Tenzin to come. This seems more like his area of expertise."

* * *

Tenzin studied the picture of the missing girl. _Dead girl, probably,_ Lin thought darkly.

"This is who we're looking for?" She saw the sorrow in his eyes. He had daughters of his own, she could only imagine how this must affect him. Suddenly she felt guilty for dragging him into this. She nodded her head once. Tenzin turned his attention back to the file, reading over it.

"Where is her mother now?"

"Ba Sing Se."

"And her father?"

"Not in the picture," she said curtly.

They fell quiet, and Lin shifted a little to make herself more comfortable. They were in her Satomobile, parked outside of the landowner's house, waiting for him to come back home. After a while, Tenzin broke the silence. 

"That warehouse, the one by the docks that got hit when Vatuu attacked the city? If she really had been there... when the fire broke out, and if she... died there, it is possible that her spirit is still bound to the place."

Lin let his words sink in, but she never got to reply because in the same moment she spotted the man they'd been waiting for.

"There he is," she said to Tenzin and they both swiftly exited her car to head him off.

The man was about the close the door when they reached him, but Lin was faster, shifting the ground upwards to serve as a door stopper.

"What the hell?" the man exclaimed, before his eyes fell on Lin's uniform and Tenzin's tattoos and he backed off a little. His entire body language was still hostile though and Lin knew this would be a pain.

"I'm Chief Beifong, this is Councilman Tenzin, and we got some questions."

"What about?" the man asked in feigned ignorance.

"What do you know about the disappearance of Wu Yifei?"

"Who?"

"The girl who used to live in your property, along with her mother, five years ago." She held the girl's picture right up in front of his face, and scowled when his eyes only flickered to it for a mere second before landing back on her face with an ostensibly disinterested look.

"Nothing."

"I find that hard to believe."

"Not my problem."

"We are trying to find out what happened to the Wu girl, so that her mother can have some peace of mind. As a father yourself, surely you have some empathy for her case."

"I genuinely don't. Maybe she should have considered first what happens when you let your kid run with lowlifes."

"What does that mean?"

"Nothing."

"You know that withholding information falls under obstruction of the law and is thus, a criminal offense?"

"Bite me."

He tried closing the door forcefully and this time, Lin slammed her bare hand against it to stop it. Anger was pulsing through her veins.

"Are you a lawful man, Mr. Yang?"

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me. Think back to the way you handle your business. Have you done everything in accordance to our laws? Think hard, because if you have any dirt on you, I _will_ find it."

"Are you threatening me?" he snarled, finally opening the door completely to get into her personal space, towering over her. Lin didn't move. She knew this game – men using aggression to hide fear, feigning outrage to cover the truth. She did not play their game.

"Is there something that could be threatening to you?" she asked, unfazed by his intimidation attempt. She could see his jaw twitch and had her answer.

"You better take a step back."

This entire time, Tenzin had not interfered, knowing Lin could handle herself, but now his voice was cold, and even Lin felt a shudder go down her spine. He tried very hard to be just like his father, but he had been born with his mother's temper: He would blow up easily and then calm down seconds later, and she would often make fun of how red his face would get when he got riled up. But the times where he would grow cool and collected, like the calm before a storm, those were the times that reminded her that he had not only inherited his parents' kind hearts, but their unmatched power as well.

The man's eyes flickered back and forth between Lin and Tenzin, and she could see the moment his survival instincts kicked in and he backed down.

"What is it you want to know?"

"Everything."

"Fine. Yes, I knew the family. Single mom, often late with rent, but always paid. Been working several jobs for all I know. The girl seemed nice enough, until she started running with bad crowd. Neighbours started complaining to me, about a year or so before her disappearance, because they were worried about her modesty. Teenage girl, always coming back home late at night? There was some talk. I don't know what she got caught up in, didn't ask, didn't care."

"Why did you tear down the house?"

"It had a bad energy."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Lin pressed.

"None of the people who lived there after Wu stayed there for long. One couple told me they felt like there was someone else there with them. Saw shadows and such." Lin and Tenzin exchanged a meaningful look. "I don't believe in that kind of thing, but I've heard that a house can soak up the energy of its inhabitants. And after the disappearance of her daughter, well, her mother kind of lost it. Even she couldn't stay in the house for long after that. So I had to tear it down. I'm going to build a new one in its place. Nothing better than a fresh front to make people forget."

As they walked back to Lin's Satomobile she growled, "I'm going to nail his ass to the wall."

"Please do," Tenzin said and opened the car door for her.

* * *

They were standing at a crossroad, waiting for the traffic cop to signal their turn. Lin was drumming her fingers softly against the steering wheel before she made her decision.

"I'm gonna drop you off at the ferry, so you can go back to the Island."

"What are you gonna do?" She could hear apprehension in his voice – of course he had picked up on the subtle shift in her demeanour.

"I think it's time for me to go to the warehouse."

"Lin, that's reckless, I can't let you go there –"

"There's nothing you can say to stop me, Tenzin, I have made up my mind."

"And you have to let me finish my sentences. I can't let you go there _alone_. I'm coming with you."

"Tenzin," she sighed. "I don't know what's waiting there. It could be dangerous, and it's my job to find out, but I can't ask you to mess with that."

"And you're not asking, are you? I'm offering."

She squinted her eyes at him. "Do I get to say 'no'?"

"Absolutely not."

Lin would have argued longer but a loud honk behind her reminded her that she was in the middle of a street, and the decision was made for her as she took the turn towards the docks. She couldn't help but let out a laugh that she managed to mask as an irritated huff.

"You're a piece of work, mister."

"Pot meet kettle."

"Did we argue this much when we were younger?"

"Oh, definitely."

"Spirits," she murmured, "no wonder we broke up."

She meant it as a joke, but it came out with a pang of bitterness not even she could deny.

"Yeah," Tenzin said quietly after a long pause, and when she shot him a glance she saw his face was turned away from her, eyes fixed somewhere in the distance.

The rest of the ride was spent in silence, until they pulled up at the warehouse. It looked rundown, like it hadn't been used in years, the windowpanes dusty and parts of the facade had started to crumble. The sun had already begun dipping into the waters of the ocean, making the surface flicker in a deep red as they made their way towards the building. They found a door, but when Tenzin tried to pull it open, it wouldn't budge.

"Lock's probably stuck," Lin said, "it does look pretty rusty."

She laid her hand against the metal and slid it sideways, and with a crunch, the door swung open. She and Tenzin exchanged one last look before they stepped inside. They found themselves in a hall, with a first floor that could be accessed over two metallic staircases along the walls. The first floor extended in a square alongside the building, with a huge gap in its middle through which Lin and Tenzin were looking up now. The building was almost empty, apart from some obsolete equipment from days gone by still standing around. The one thing absent though was a ghost.

Lin looked around. Then she used her seismic sense on their surroundings. Then she called a prompting _'hello?'_ into the tall space. Her voice echoed back from the walls. Finally, she turned to Tenzin with her hands on her hips. "Got any ideas?"

"Hmm." She saw his bushy eyebrows draw together as he contemplated. "All the fires happened after sunset, am I right? So I say we should wait." His eyes wandered to the faint light falling through the dusty windows. "It won't be much longer now."

At Tenzin's suggestion, they made their way upstairs, and sat down on an oblong metallic case that stood in front of a window. The moon had settled onto the night sky; it was a waning moon and its shine was pale against the lights of the city. A few bright spots moved across the water, and they watched the little ships reach and leave the RP harbour. 

"Have you heard from Korra recently?" Lin asked.

"I have. Her and Asami are in the Earth Kingdom at the moment, they're helping with expanding the train railroads throughout the Kingdom. I think Future Industries is involved in the construction, though I must confess, I don't remember the details."

"Korra and Asami, huh?"

"Yes! It was a surprise for me at first, I did not see that coming, but Korra is happier than I've ever seen her, and much more... balanced, within; content. It's what I have been hoping for, after all the hardships she's had to go through. I couldn't be more overjoyed."

Lin smiled fondly at his enthusiasm. It had come as a surprise for her, too, when she had learned the two girls were seeing each other, and they seemed to complement each other nicely.

"I think Asami is really good for her," Tenzin continued, "especially after the debacle with Mako, the whole back and forth was really stringing out my patience. Sorry," he looked at her a little sheepishly. "I know you like the boy." 

"Oh, I like him much better now that he doesn't deal with his love drama right under my nose, or in front of my office," she snorted. 

"Teenagers, hm?"

"To be fair, they are handling the entire situation ridiculously maturely. I never got the impression that there were any hard feelings between Asami and Korra, even back then when everything was still fresh. And now, Mako seems genuinely happy for them. It's nice," she said quietly. 

"You're right."

She didn't need to say it, she knew he was able to read between the lines, and realise she was thinking back to a time 20 years ago. They had been older, no teenage hormones to blame it on... but they also had been together longer so maybe that evened it out, somehow.

"Lin," he said tentatively, "what did you mean, back in the car, when you said –" but he never got to finish his question because Lin suddenly raised her hand to shush him. There was a tingling on the back of her neck, the chilling sensation of being _watched_ , and she jumped to her feet and whipped around quickly, hands raised, ready to strike or defend.

The old woman had been right, Lin thought, there was nothing spirit-like about the thing that was standing in front of them. There was no glow, no transparency. The figure was solid, and dark, with long limbs and a blank space where a face should have been. It looked like a poor imitation of a person. Like the shadow of a person that had grown tired of being stuck to concrete walls and had one day decided to crawl off of them. Next to her, she heard Tenzin suck in a breath.

Lin, too, took a deep breath before she spoke up.

"I'm Chief Beifong, from the Republic City police. What's your name?"

There came no reply; the creature didn't even move. Very discretely, Lin lifted the metal box they had been sitting on just a few millimetres off the ground, and shifted it a little further away, to give them more room to move it need be, but to keep as a barrier between them and the thing, before she spoke up again.

"I'm here to investigate the series of fires that have been happening in the city these last two weeks. Do you know anything about that?"

There was still no reaction, but Lin pressed on.

"We're also looking for a girl, Wu Yifei." At the sound of the name, the shadow tilted its head at them. It was the first sign of recognition they had received and Lin caught onto it immediately. She stepped forward.

"Lin," Tenzin murmured, and she felt how clammy his hand was when he reached for hers, but she lightly pulled herself free, before addressing the shadow form again.

"Yifei – that's you, isn't it?"

_Yes._

There were no lips to move, no vocal chords to ring, but the voice was coming from the ghost without doubt. A girl's voice; hollow, reverberating, but definitely a girl's voice.

"Do you know where you are?"

_The docks._

"That's right. Do you know how you got here?"

_I'm waiting for my friends._

Lin frowned in confusion and she shared a quick glance with Tenzin, who looked equally concerned.

"What friends?"

_I don't know where they are. I need to go back._

"What do you mean, go back?" she asked, getting more and more irritated.

 _Home._ _My mom will be back from work soon._

"Your mother is not here anymore, and... you can't go home." A suspicion came creeping over her, settling deep in the pit of her stomach, and when she spoke up again, she spoke very slow and clearly. "Yifei, you can't go back. You're dead."

There was silence, for a moment, and then: _"Lin!"_ She heard Tenzin cry her name, and suddenly everything happened very fast.

A vast sea of flames engulfed the entire first floor, and instinctively she turned her body sideways and raised her arms to bend the metallic box into a shield wall for them, just as Tenzin stretched out his hands to create a protective ball of air around her and himself. Her makeshift wall got swallowed inside the flames and they surrounded them in seconds, licking on the shield of air Tenzin tried to uphold. Lin saw the strain it put on him, felt the heat biting on her skin and without hesitating she used the stone beneath her feet to jolt herself backwards, pulling Tenzin with her. Glass shattered, and then they fell.

Tenzin must have used his bending to cushion the impact as they hit the ocean's surface, but the water soaked through her armor and the metal felt unusually heavy as it dragged her down. Still, she fought to stay up with every muscle in her body, and when she felt a hand on her arm she knew Tenzin was okay, too.

"I've got you," she heard his voice in her ear, "come on, I got you."

Together they made their way back to the shore, careful to avoid falling cinders, but the fire had extinguished almost completely already, nothing else left to consume apart from brick and stone. They fell to their knees as soon as they touched solid ground, chests heaving, not just from the exhaustion, but the rush of adrenaline finally catching up with them. Lin met Tenzin's eyes, a silent exchange to make sure they were both alright.

Help arrived shortly after, a Waterbender unit to bring the fire under control and some of her officers, who she ordered to seclude the area until further notice. She did not tell them what had happened, not sure how to give them a report on something she still only halfway believed herself. So she told them that yes, she had been investigating the string of fires, and this one had been related to the case, but also that she would take care of the paperwork herself, and that had been that on that. Lin was not ready to admit to her officers that she had been talking to the ghost of a dead girl. She also shooed the healers away that had been trying to fuss over the few cuts she had acquired, probably during their fall through the window. Her uniform had taken most of the impact, protecting her from serious damage, but a few splinters must have grazed her face. Small cuts that would heal on their own. Tenzin had been lucky, too. She watched the healers take care of him, erasing the superficial injuries he had sustained. It was for the better, she thought, she did not want him returning to his family visibly harmed. Not when she was the one to be blamed for it. He must have considered something similar, because when she asked him if he wanted her to drive him back to the ferry, he declined. 

"My place, then," she suggested, "to get cleaned up first."

They drove home in silence, both too tired and lost in their own thoughts to talk, but she could feel his eyes on her from time to time.

Once they reached her house, she went to her bedroom to peel off her uniform. The metal had absorbed a lot of the heat from the fire to a point where it had turned into pain and she was glad to shed it and put on dry clothes. She had just grabbed a towel and started patting her hair dry when she heard him call.

"Lin?"

"Yeah?" She stepped out into the living room from where his voice had come and saw him standing by the radiator. 

"Um. I can't seem to make this work." He gestured helplessly at the thing. Lin gave him an exhausted chuckle.

"Right, you still use the old technology at the temple." She flicked her wrist to turn it on. "It'll take a bit to heat up."

"Thank you."

Lin held out a couple of clothes that she had retrieved from an old wardrobe in the house's guest room.

"Found these. I hope they fit."

Tenzin took the pair of pants and shirt from her and held them up, a contemplative expression appearing on his face.

"Are these..."

"...Uncle Sokka's? Yeah."

"Why –"

"Don't know," she interrupted him immediately. "Don't know, didn't ask."

Tenzin seemed utterly thrown but took the clothes from her eventually and started replacing them for his own. Lin was suddenly very interested in the pattern of her carpet until she heard him clear his throat softly and she looked up to see him done changing.

"Um, should I just place them on the heater?" he asked and Lin nodded.

She leaned down to pick up his drenched shoes as well, when a sharp pain bolted through her and she quickly turned her head to hide her wince, but he’d noticed it anyway and was by her side in a second.

"Lin, are you hurt?"

"It’s nothing."

"Let me see."

"I said it’s fine, just let it go."

He crossed his arms in front of him. "You know that I can be just as stubborn as you are."

She scowled at him, but he didn’t back down. He knew her too well, knew she was all bark and no bite when she was in pain.

"Fine," she relented, and he stepped closer and raised her tank top to reveal a burn at the small of her back, where her scorching armor had eaten itself into her skin.

He inhaled sharply. "We should put something on that. How bad is the pain? Should I get a healer?"

"Not necessary, I got plenty of stuff in the bathroom cupboard."

He returned a few moments later with a balm and she held out her hand to take it from him.

"Don't be silly, Lin. It's on your back, you can't even see what you're doing."

"I can manage fine, thank you very much."

"Come on, I used to do it all the time."

"Used to."

She saw his face fall at her dig and immediately felt a pang of guilt.

"Fine," she grumbled and plopped down on the couch, pulling the fabric up. He came to sit beside her and started applying the balm. It was ice cold and burned as it made contact with her skin, and she suppressed a hiss. Tenzin's fingers worked carefully though, gently moving them over the burned area.  
At some point she felt them pause, and then they trailed over to trace a red line on her hipbone that was just beginning to fade. A keepsake of the Triple Threats on an unlucky day for her years ago. 

"This one is new," he muttered, more to himself. She tensed up at the sensation of his fingertips ghosting over her skin, all pretence of medical purpose gone.

"Are you done?"

"Yes." He let her top fall back and she pulled her legs up. "Thank you, by the way. For saving us back there."

"It was nothing," she said quietly. "I got us into the mess in the first place." The memory of the moment where everything had gone to hell flashed through her mind. "The way she talked – it was like she didn't _know_ she was dead." She shook her head.

"There's a lot more to understand about spirits than we know so far," Tenzin consoled her. "In all my years, I've never been faced with a situation like this. I'm afraid I'm out of my depth."

Lin sighed, and ran a hand through her damp hair. "It doesn't matter now. We'll be able to make more sense of it tomorrow. We should go and get some rest, the sun rises in just a few hours."

"Yes, I suppose you're right."

He didn't move though, and she looked up at him. He'd been studying her and she noticed how his eyes flickered down to her lips once in a while, heard his breath coming just a little bit flatter than usual, and she had been with him too long not to recognise the signs.

The realisation washed over her and she was overcome by a sense of dizziness, and nausea, like that one time she had suffered a concussion, her brain firing the message through her body that everything was _wrong_. Another part of her, though, a much smaller, irrational part wanted this with a strength that frightened her. 

The combination of both had her bolt up with force and bring distance between them, arms wrapped protectively around her middle.

"You should leave.“

"Of course," he said, looking absolutely rattled. And ashamed, she thought bitterly. Ashamed at feeling a sliver of attraction.

He scrambled to his feet, collecting all his clothes, but paused at the door to look back at her. She didn't meet his eyes.

"I'm very sorry, Lin. I don't know what came over me."

"Go. Go meditate on it," she told him, flatly, and with that she left the room, expecting him to show himself out. She barely slept that night.

* * *

They didn't speak for nine days. After the confrontation with Yifei's spirit in the warehouse the fires over Republic City had stopped. Lin hoped it meant that the girl had finally come to accept her passing and moved on to wherever dead people went when they died. The years in her job though had taught her not to praise day before nightfall. In her experience, criminals never really went away until it was her who put them there. Nevertheless, no more attacks meant she had no real reason to talk to Tenzin. She'd walked into him once in passing, but their conversation had been short and awkward.

It was in the night of the tenth day that things changed. She sat on her bed, reports scattered around her that she'd been trying to work through. Her eyes were burning, but she blinked the tiredness away. It was not like she could get any sleep anyway – the last couple of weeks had robbed her of any peace of mind she already did not possess. She looked at the clock on her nightstand. It was a few minutes past 1am. Lin massaged her temples and ran her hands over her face, before getting up to fetch a glass of water. The hallway was dark, and she didn't bother turning on the lights as she padded down the hall barefoot, knowing the way blindly. She went through the living room, and instantly stilled when she thought she heard a shuffling noise. She remained frozen in place for a few seconds, before turning the light switch with a quick flick of her wrist. The room was completely empty, and Lin shook her head at herself. She really was tired.

Lin made her way into the kitchen and swiftly drained two glasses. Her gaze fell on a letter lying on top of the counter. It was a letter from Zaofu that she'd left untouched for the last few days. Since she couldn't sleep anyway, she decided maybe it was the right time to deal with it now.

With the letter in her hand she made her way back to her bed when a flicker in the corner of her eye caught her attention, and she nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw the black shadow standing in the middle of her living room. She cursed loudly, trying to calm her racing heart. She had not felt that thing coming into her house. Of course not, she almost laughed at herself, it was a fucking ghost. In her living room. Probably walked right through the wall. Once her initial shock wore off she decided to deal with it how she dealt with anything else her job was throwing at her – head on.

"What are you doing here?"

It didn't reply.

"Yifei."

The figure was as faceless as it had been before, but Lin saw something shift, where the face should have been, and she felt like it was looking straight at her now. Growing more confident she tried again.

"What are you doing here, Yifei? Why are you in my house?"

_You know me._

"In a way."

_How?_

"I'm the Chief of Police. We've been looking for you _._ "

_You're not afraid of me._

"No. I'm not afraid."

She watched the figure closely, listening to the subtle tones in her voice. It was a shadow, a ghost, but there was an echo, too. Of a girl that used to be alive.

_I'm dead._

Lin hesitated for a moment, remembering vividly what had happened last time she'd confronted the girl with her death. But she deserved to be told the truth.

"Yes. I'm very sorry."

She tensed immediately, waiting for a reaction, but none came.

_Lin._

Lin's brow furrowed. "How do you know my name?"

_He said your name._

Tenzin. She was talking about Tenzin.

"Yifei," Lin said carefully, praying to every god that this wouldn't backfire, "do you know what happened to your body, when you died?"

She had hoped for an answer, maybe a solution, or maybe even a hint. Instead the figure in front of her began to tremble, and the dullness of her voice became a hiss that sent a feeling of alarm to Lin' core when she uttered two words.

_Help me._

"Okay," Lin replied, forcing her voice to stay even, "how?"

 **_Help me_ ** _._

"I will, if you tell me what I can do," Lin said again.

_I feel so cold._

"Listen to me, I promise, I will help, but –" Lin didn't get to finish her sentence because the girl's ghost got more and more aggravated and suddenly a burst of flames sprang out of the floor around her, shooting up high to the ceiling.

"Shit," Lin exclaimed and without missing a beat she raised her arms and, with a strong pulling motion, she bent the water pipes through the ceiling until they broke.

Water poured down into the room. The moment Yifei's spirit had appeared in the middle of her house Lin had considered all her options in case things would go awry. She was now glad she had. The last flames flickered weakly before extinguishing entirely, and Lin was left alone in her half burned, half flooded living room. The letter from her sister, she noticed, was entirely soaked. 

* * *

Lin went back to work the next day like nothing had happened the previous night. She made it through most of the day, too busy with everything else for her mind to find the time to stress herself out. At some point during the afternoon though, work quieted down a little, and things started catching up with her. Lin sat behind her large oak desk, unable to focus on the files in front of her, fingers nervously drumming on its surface, when she finally picked up the phone and dialled a number.

"Tenzin speaking," came the familiar voice through the line.

"Tenzin, it's me."

"Lin," he exclaimed, and she cursed herself for the flip in her stomach at how happy he sounded. "This is a nice surprise. Is everything alright?" he added, his voice more worried now.

"Yes." She bit her lip, before she continued, "Are you busy right now? There's something I need to talk to you about."

He was quiet for a moment, before he said "I'll be right there."

"Thank you," she exhaled and hung up.

* * *

After Lin's call he cancelled all his meetings for the day and headed straight to Headquarters. He'd been so relieved when she'd called, and so happy to hear her voice. The last ten days he had wondered whether he had ruined their friendship, again. He still didn't know what had come over him that night at her home, didn't want to dwell on it. It had been nothing, probably, only the stress of the day, the fear of not making it out alive, and the nostalgic familiarity – it had been a memory of his feelings, nothing more. She had been his first love, after all, and his uncle used to say that that was something you'd always hold on to. Nothing to read into, he'd decided. But of course, he knew Lin, and when she called it was never without reason. At first he'd worried if she had gotten hurt, or in trouble. Now he had the sinking feeling that it was something more personal. 

His bad feeling was confirmed when he entered her office and the first thing he noticed was the expression on her face. Lin always looked serious, of course, but there were fine nuances to it, and more by intuition than skill he had learned to read them all. So one look at her and he knew that something was exceptionally not right. His anxiety started to spike when he waited for her to speak up while she momentarily seemed at a loss for words.

"Last night I had a visit. From Yifei."

Whatever he'd expected, that was not it.

"I – what? How did she – ? At your home? What did she do?"he spluttered, too stunned at the news to form a coherent thought.

"Set the living room on fire. Including the table Uncle Sokka gave my mother." Her voice was forcibly nonchalant. "Maybe Bumi can fix it, I’m gonna ask him, he still owes me one."

"Lin," he interrupted, horrified. "How did she know where you live?"

"I don’t know, she’s a ghost. Maybe she followed me."

"That’s it, you’re staying with us on the Island tonight."

"No, I’m not."

"Yes, you are, it’s too dangerous here."

"Which is exactly why I'm staying."

"Lin…"

"I can’t leave just because things get tough. I’m responsible for this city, and I’m staying." She glared at him, and he noticed the small crease between her brows that only appeared when she was really angry, or determined. In Lin's case, they often came and in hand. Despite being still worried for her safety, he couldn't help the small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

"Fine," he said. "Then so am I."

She started to protest but Tenzin remained undeterred.

"Republic City is my legacy, too." He knew she was gonna relent before she did, and when she threw her hands up in frustration and leaned back into her chair he knew she wasn't going to argue with him further.

"Why am I here?" he asked then, because it had just occurred to him that he still didn't know why she had called him. Lin didn't ask for emotional support, not ever. Whatever she was feeling, she'd deal with it on her own. And she wouldn't ask for help if it wasn't absolutely necessary. Especially from him, he thought glumly. Not after –

"I need your help," Lin's voice came out strained, like it took everything from her to say those words, but she pressed on. "The girl's ghost? She's not angry. I don't even think she's dangerous, not on purpose anyway. She's just scared. When she came to my house, she asked me to help her. I just don't know how. I would do it alone, but," she paused, "I don't know what to do. I don't know what she needs, and I don't think she knows it either. I wouldn't ask this of you, Tenzin, but I'm worried about what will happen if I don't figure this out."

"Lin," he cut her off firmly, "you don't need to explain. Of course I will help. Gladly. We will find a way, I promise you that."

She nodded, and he saw some of the rigorous tension leaving her body as she leaned back into her chair. He noted the visible signs of exhaustion on her, and he found himself wondering how the last few days had treated her, if she had gotten enough sleep, if her burn had healed.

"So, Lin, uh," he began, fidgeting a little with the hem of his cloak, "are we, um– are we good?"

She looked up at him, met the uncertainty in his eyes. And then she brushed it off in typical Lin-fashion. "Course we're good. Just been a couple of crazy days, right?"

"Yes," Tenzin agreed readily, and they both fell quiet again.

"Are you hungry?" he asked all of a sudden, "Because I've been stuck in my office all day and I'm starving. How about we grab something to eat, and you tell me exactly what the girl's ghost said to you."

* * *

  
They went to a small restaurant that served Earth Kingdom food and enough privacy for them to talk openly about her encounter last night. Lin told him everything, and he listened intently. She was careful to recall every detail, every exact wording, and her years of police work proved to come in handy, because by the time she had finished, over an hour had passed and she had given Tenzin a full report on the entire event. He didn't interrupt her, unless to ask a follow-up question, and he stroked his beard a lot, which she took as a sign that he was thinking (though she did have the suspicion it had started as a habit once he had become _Master_ Tenzin and had tried to act accordingly – all wise and serene. Somehow that thought amused her.)

"You know what’s odd? The poor girl died in a fire –" she waited for him to continue, but as he seemed to get more and more lost in his thoughts she flicked his nose. "Ouch!"– "Snap out of it, Airhead. What’s odd?"

"Well I’m just thinking, why would a girl who died in a fire feel cold?"

"I don’t know, Tenzin, but if her next arson finally gets me I’ll be sure to come back and let you know."

"That’s not funny, Lin!" he said sharply.

"Then don't ask me such a stupid question and get to the point."

"What I mean is, when someone dies a violent death, sometimes their spirit gets... stuck. They're not able to pass on yet, because they've been ripped from their bodies before they understood what was happening. They never had the time to properly and peacefully leave them." Lin's brows were knitted hard in concentration, trying to follow him. "So in case of poor Yifei, the logical conclusion would be for her to feel the last sensation she's felt in her moment of death."

"Burning."

"Yes. But what if her body was still sending her sensations. What if it was in a place that still connects it to her spirit?"

"But they never found her body."

"Exactly. Because she died during Harmonic Convergence. So what if, instead of her body remaining and her spirit moving on, it happened the other way around? Lin... I think her body is in the Spirit World."

She just stared at him silently for a whole good minute, her brain rushing her through what felt like twenty different emotions, of which none formed into coherent speech.

Then she breathed out and a single word left her mouth. _"Fuck."_

"That's one way to put it," Tenzin said mildly.

"So what do we do? We can't just waltz in there and go get it."

He cleared his throat, "Well, technically, we can."

"Oh, spirit hell no," she groaned when she realised he was being serious, and the inevitable conclusion came to her like a punch in the gut. The urge to pace had her get up and stalk over to the bar, where she ordered a drink that she knocked back in one movement, before she returned to their table where Tenzin had waited patiently.

"A'ight," she said once she had plopped back into her seat, "walk me through it." 

"I believe that Yifei's body may be in a place called The Eternal Ice. I've read about it many years ago, it's an ice desert located somewhere at the edge of the spirit world, and it serves somewhat as a netherworld for spirits. I believe that once we find the desert, that's where we'll find her body, too."

"Sounds doable enough."

"But first we have to get there. There's two ways to enter the spirit world, either through a portal, or by meditating. Though the latter is not really an option because, as everybody knows, I cannot meditate into the spirit world."

"Neither can I, dummy. Besides, there's no way I'm going to enter the spirit world without my body. Or my bending, for that matter. If I'm gonna have to face a predatory monster bug or something, I'm taking my cables with me."

Tenzin must have noticed the nervousness she was trying to hide. "We could ask Korra to go," he suggested gently, but she shook her head.

"Kid's been through enough. She deserves a break."

"You and me then?"

"You and me," she confirmed, with more determination now, "Let's finish this."

Her gaze drifted to the evening sky, where the first stars had appeared in the navy blue sky. "Leaves the question: Are we going to the South or the North Pole?"

There had been a Spirit Portal in Republic City once. But after the spirits had protested its existence vehemently and Triads had soon started to try gain control over it and abuse it for their purposes, Korra had agreed to close it again for good.

"South, I would say." Tenzin rested his chin on his long fingers, looking contemplative. "I know the North would make more sense, because it's closer. But South is where family is, and I think it might be wise to be where my mother is. In case things don't go exactly as planned."

Lin nodded. It would take them an entire day to get there instead of a few hours, but if it meant being in a place that felt remotely like home, and with people close that they could trust blindly, it would be worth it. Especially because–

"There's one other thing we have to do first though."

His eyes flickered to the clock on the opposite wall and she softly added, "Tomorrow. We should get some rest before. We're gonna need it."

They paid up and stepped outside into the fresh evening air.

"Are you sure you don't want to go back to the Island?" she asked him again, "I doubt she's gonna show up tonight."

"Let's not take the risk, shall we?"

They made their way back to her home. She'd had people fix up the mess from last night, but the scorch marks on floor and table still bore witness to the encounter.

"I can sleep in the living room," Tenzin offered but she rolled her eyes at him.

"Don’t be silly, there’s still my and Suyin’s old rooms, with, you know, actual beds."

They walked down the hall and her room was the first one so she opened it. Lin hadn't used it in years. After her mother had resigned, and eventually left Republic City, the house had passed into her possession, but Lin hadn't moved out of her childhood bedroom until her and Tenzin split, and she had known an entire chapter of her life had ended. With Aang, Su, Toph and finally Tenzin gone, Lin, too, left behind the room she had grown up in and had locked everything inside. It was like opening a window to the past – everything looked exactly the same way she had left it. From the single poster on the wall over the empty flowerpot on her window sill, to the bedspread covering the mattress. She suddenly wondered how Tenzin and her had ever both fit into that narrow bed of hers. Tenzin must have thought something similar, because his ears turned into a bright shade of red.

"Seriously?" she asked, "that’s what’s getting you flustered?"

But even she felt warmth spread on her cheeks. "Suyin’s room then."

She left the door just a tiny bit ajar.

* * *

They got up early the next morning, despite the fact that neither of them had slept very well. Tenzin had always been an early riser, partially due to his routine of morning meditation, but beyond that he had the natural gift of rising with the sun with the same ease as a songbird. Lin got up early most days too, main reason for that being her job, but the only way she got through was with an unhealthy amount of coffee and a great deal of grumpiness.

When she walked into her kitchen to pour herself a cup before getting dressed and ready, Tenzin was already there, looking slightly puzzled.

"Lin!" he exclaimed when he saw her, "I can't seem to find your groceries, so I can make breakfast."

"That's because I don't have any."

"You got no food in your house?" he asked, baffled. "Then what do you have for breakfast?"

"Coffee."

"And the rest of the day?"

"Well, I'm never here during the day, am I?"

She took the heated cup in her hands and sipped at it. Tenzin was still standing in the middle of her kitchen with a frown and she snorted. "Stop pouting, we're gonna pick you something up on the way."

Republic City was bustling in the morning, with people tending to their daily business, and Tenzin bought them a few steamed buns from a street vendor which they ate in her car. Lin had initially refused. She rarely ever ate anything in the morning, but Tenzin kept insisting so adamantly that in the end she gave in, just to make him leave her be.

The entire area around the warehouse had been closed off, so Lin parked her Satomobile a bit further off and they walked the remaining metres by foot. The building still showed the aftermath of their last spirit encounter, the entire brick facade of the upper floor was coloured black and some of the windows were cracked. They came to a halt in front of the heavy, metallic door.

"Are you sure about this?"

"No," she replied. "but what's the alternative? One way or another, she has to come. She needs to enter the Spirit World with us, and even if she won't, we can't leave her here while we're gone. It's too risky."

"Alright," he said and Lin pushed the door open.

They stepped into the spacious building, their footsteps dull on the ash-covered ground. The morning sun was filtering through the dusty windows, making the room look a lot less eerie and dangerous than the first time around. Lin knew that at worst, this was but an illusion, and the girl's ghost could still screw them over. The lesser bad but still not good case was that for some mad spirit logic the ghost wouldn't show during daylight because that meant they'd have to come back that night, and she really had had her fair share of deadly night encounters. 

Once they'd reached the middle of the hall, Lin planted her feet firmly on the ground and took a deep breath, shooting Tenzin one last look, who gave her a reassuring nod in return.

"Hello?" Her voice echoed back at her from the hollow space. "Is anybody there?"

Nothing.

"Yifei, it's Lin. I'm ready to help you," and then, much quieter to herself she murmured, "Come on, please, show up."

She looked around, but still there was nothing. Lin felt herself getting frustrated when, suddenly, somebody spoke up. 

_You can help me?_

Both her and Tenzin swiveled around to where the voice had come from. The girl had appeared from the wall on the opposite side of them, apprehensively hovering centimeters above the ground.

"Yes," Lin said and made a step towards the figure, "I believe so. We think we know where your body is. My friend and I are going to bring it back. But for that we're going to have to go to the South Pole. That's where the Spirit Portal is." She took another careful step forwards. "I would like you to come with us, to the South Pole."

_Go with you?_

"I know the thought of leaving Republic City must be scary. But you'll be travelling with us, you won't have to be on your own."

_Why can I not... stay here?_

"Because I don't think that you should be alone." She could hear Tenzin murmur her name, apprehension in his voice, but she pressed on. "Right now you're scared, and hurt, and angry, and I get it. If this happened to me, I'd be terrified. I'd be furious. And I wouldn't be able to control what I'm doing either. So I promise you that I'm going to help you. But I also have a duty to protect the other people living in this city, and to them, you are a threat." She paused, before she said in a softer tone, "There's a lot of ice at the South Pole. It'll be a lot more difficult to set anything on fire there."

The girl said nothing for a while, but when she spoke, her voice sounded quieter than before.

_I'm sorry about your house._

"Don't worry about it, kid. No harm done. So will you come with us?"

_I'll come._

She let out a breath of relief and turned her head to find Tenzin's eyes, an expression akin to wonder shining in them. She gave him an awkward shrug in return and he smiled. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up: Into the spirit world, aka Lin and Tenzin go on a 'life-changing fieldtrip' together :D  
> I hope everyone has a lovely New Year's Eve!!


	3. Into the Spirit World

It was in the early morning hours when they packed their things on Oogie. Lin and the girl had taken the earliest ferry to Air Temple Island, from where they were to begin their trip. The sky had still been dim when Lin took the girl to Tenzin's, and there weren't many people in the streets yet, and those that were didn't pay them any mind. Gotta love Republic City, Lin thought dryly, where no one paid any attention to anything that didn't concern them. Tenzin's bison however seemed spooked when Yifei’s spirit approached but Lin reached out and put a soothing hand on his nose.

"It’s alright, Oogie, she's okay, I promise. She’s not gonna be a worse travelling companion than me, and you can deal with me, can’t you?" The giant sky bison hummed and she petted his furry head. "Thanks, big guy."

Yifei hovered by her side, while Oogie, comforted by Lin’s presence, finally settled down again. Tenzin had been six when he’d gotten his own sky bison. He had been so excited, and even more so when she came over to the Island and he got to share his excitement with her. She had refused to fly on it, even when Tenzin had begged. Oogie had been tiny back then, and she’d not trusted him not to topple her. But she’d trusted Tenzin, and eventually, not able to bear his disappointment long, she’d given in. In the end, she needn’t have worried: Even as a baby, Oogie was gentle and serious in his responsibility. Very much so like his master, who stood a few feet away from them now, saying goodbyes to his family. She watched Pema lean forward to give him a kiss on his cheek. On that day Tenzin’s wife wouldn’t have been born for another ten years. And then, many years later and from one day to another, she had become his world. Lin was annoyed at herself how much that still stung. A warm nose bumped against her, and she looked back to the bison.

"I know," she murmured. "I’m working on it, okay?"

Eventually, Tenzin was done saying his goodbyes and came over to where Lin and the girl were waiting for him and helped the kid up onto the saddle, before taking his spot at Oogie's head, while Lin made herself comfortable for the long journey south.

A few hours had passed, and Lin could have sat in silence for the entirety of the trip, but the girl's figure kneeled on the opposite side of the saddle and though it was hard to tell Lin had the impression that the girl seemed rather tense. She cast a brief glance at Tenzin, who still sat at the front to guide Oogie before making her decision. She got up and took a spot right next to the kid.

"Never been so high up in the air before?"

The girl shook her head.

"You'll get over it," Lin said, not unkindly. "Took me some getting used to, too." She leaned back against the saddle, watching some seagulls fly by.

"Wanna talk about what happened?"

When she got no reply at first she just nodded, "Fair enough." Lin was ready to rest her head back on the railing of the saddle, maybe close her eyes for a bit, when the girl started to speak, slowly, as if weighing every word.

_I don't remember much. I was supposed to meet some friends but I was early. It was our hide-out, when we skipped school. I know I was there, waiting. When nobody showed, I went home. Everything after that was a blur, like a bad dream I couldn't wake up from. But my mother was there, I could see her, hear her, so I accepted it. Until she wasn't. And then my home disappeared and I freaked. I tried finding it, but I got lost. And then you found me._

Lin listened quietly, letting the girl recall the events, probably for the first time since they happened.

"You really didn't know you were dead?"

The girl shook her head. _I don't remember dying. It was just a never-ending nightmare I was stuck in. Until you came along, and shook me awake._

"Yeah, I'm afraid sensitivity is not really my strong suit."

_It did the job, so I'm not complaining. I think I got very lucky, because I've got your help now and you can fix this._

"I don't know about that, kid, so don't thank me just yet."

_I have trust that you can, and so does the bald guy, and he seems very wise._

"Tenzin?"

_Yeah._

"Don't let his bushy eyebrows impress you too much," she quipped and cast Tenzin a brief glance, who was still sitting with his back to them. Then she added softly, "His father was the late Avatar, and his mother a great Waterbending master who trained two Avatars in her lifetime, and he lives up to both their legacies. He is wise, and powerful, and exceptionally kind. If someone can help you, it's him. But don't tell him I said that."

"Don't tell me you said what?" came a voice from her left and she nearly jumped out of her skin. Without her noticing he had probably floated himself to take a seat next to her, and she hated when he snuck up on her. 

"Spirits! You've _got_ to stop doing that."

"What isn't she supposed to tell me?"

"That you're nosier than a little schoolboy."

"Haha, very funny, Lin."

He settled more comfortably next to them, stretching out his legs with a sigh.

"How much longer?" Lin asked.

"We're soon going to pass the Southern Air Temple."

"Your father's home."

"Yes."

She looked out into the distance, where she thought she could see the faint outlines of the mountains; still far, far off behind miles of water.

"We can do a quick stop, you know. We're making good time and we still got a few hours left to make it to Katara's before the sun sets."

Tenzin seemed to mull it over, but the hopeful expression in his eyes told her his heart had already grown attached to the idea. He had been to all the Air Temples many times, and he had not suggested to use this occasion to visit his father's temple, but she knew how much room he had in him for sentiments.

"Maybe we can take a quick look, see if everything is going alright," he said, shooting her a side-glance.

"Yes," Lin emphasized, "let's do that." 

Their stopover lasted longer than expected, with Tenzin bustling around, talking to the acolytes and visiting the different sites inside the temple complex. Yifei stayed on Oogie for the entire time, probably worried she would freak out the residents living in the temple but she watched the goings-on around her with interest. Lin had wanted to stay there, too, feeling somewhat awkward to come back here after so many years; the last time she'd been at this place was in her mid-20s with Tenzin and even then she had known some of the acolytes were less than enthused about her, judging her for her profession and her bluntness and her 'propensity for violence'; making subtle remarks, which, in return, had made her extra feisty.

_'They don't think I'm good enough for you', she had told him in the privacy of their room one night, angrily changing into her pajamas while he watched, sitting on the edge of the bed._

_'It doesn't matter what they think', he had replied patiently._

_'That's easy for you to say, they're your fan club.'_

_'And I'm yours', he had grinned and reached out for her wrist to gently tug her between his knees._

_'They also think I'm a corrupting influence on you.'_

_'Oh you are,' and his grin had only widened when she tried to smack him and he gracefully ducked, before he'd pulled her closer again. 'I'm not complaining!'_

_'So it doesn't bother you at all that according to them your girlfriend should be a cheery, nurturing woman who couldn't hurt a fly and eats zen for breakfast, which is, essentially, the exact opposite of me?'_

_'No, love, it doesn't bother me,' he had said firmly and spread his hands on her hips, anchoring her to him. 'Because I know you, and they don't.'_

_It had been hard to stay properly mad when Tenzin was drawing soothing circles with his thumbs over the exposed skin on her hipbones._

_'You know they want to get into your pants, right?' she'd finally grumbled._

_'Too bad', he had said as his fingers ghosted higher. 'That position's already taken.'_

_'Damn right.'_

It was different, this time. Most acolytes didn't pay her any mind at all, too occupied with having Avatar Aang's son there and within minutes, he had been snatched away, so she wandered around a little, old memories of Aang bubbling up to the surface and she felt herself getting glum. She considered going back to check on the girl when a group of young acolytes, most of them not even in their teens, appeared right in front of her. Their little faces were bright with excitement.

"Excuse me, Miss, are you Chief Beifong?" A young girl had been pushed forward from the group, no doubt having been chosen to be the spokeswoman, and she was shaking nervously.

"Yeah," Lin replied, warily. "Why?"

"Are you a Metalbender?"

"Yes."

Her reply earned her a round of gasps and shrieks from the children before one of them asked her breathlessly, "Is it true you're the best Metalbender in the world?"

"Who told you that?" Lin inquired with a frown.

"Master Tenzin!" came the shouted response and Lin rolled her eyes, because of course. "He said you would show us!"

Lin felt inclined to deny their request, but she still had some time to kill, and they were looking up at her with hopeful, shiny expressions on their round faces, so she ended up sitting on the ground, surrounded by a group of children and bending various metal objects into animals, flowers, stars and one tiny airship, and that was how Tenzin found them an hour later.

"Ready to go?" he asked her with a twinkle in his eyes.

"Sure," she replied, which earned her disappointed moans from the group.

It took them at least ten more minutes to actually leave because the children were eager to show Tenzin their gifts, and Tenzin took an exaggerated amount of time to inspect and marvel at each of them. The children were delighted though so Lin kept to quietly tapping her foot while she waited, and when they left, they were waved off enthusiastically and the first girl that had spoken up called after them, "Bye, Miss Lin! Come visit us again, soon, please!"

When they went back to Oogie, Lin gave Tenzin a sly look. "'Best Metalbender in the world', huh? Don't let my mother hear you say that."

"Ooh, yeah," he replied, looking slightly panicked for a moment, "let's not tell her."

They were up in the air again and this time, Tenzin joined Lin and Yifei in the back almost immediately after departure. He sat down next to Lin and pulled something out of his robes, holding it up for her to see. It was the miniature of a sky bison, and she recognized it as one of the metal figures she had done earlier.

"You know," she said wryly, "if you'd wanted one, too, you could have just asked, instead of wangling it off some little kid."

He chuckled. "The little kid gave it to me by her own free will. She said it's for good luck."

"Well, in that case. We'll need plenty of that where we're going."

Tenzin hummed in agreement, keeping the metal figure enclosed in his palm. 

"Jinora wanted to come with us," he said suddenly, and she looked at him to see the pensive expression on his face, his thoughts obviously having wandered to his own children after talking about the young acolytes. "I know she is much more skilled in spiritual matters than I am, but... after what happened the last time.. . I hope we won't be gone for too long, I don't even want to think about what kind of trouble they might be getting themselves into."

"Your kids'll be fine. They're a bunch of tough cookies, all four of them."

"Yeah, they truly are. You know, sometimes I wonder where they got that from."

"Not you, that's for sure." She snorted at his half-offended look. "Please. You cried every time Aang retold the story of how they lost Appa in the desert."

"That's not – you can't use that as – it _was_ very sad," he jumped to his own defense. "An Airbender can't lose his bison, he's his –"

"– best friend, I know. Well, my best friend was a human fountain, and a big ole' softie. I got more, you know? How about that day where Kya put a spider in your bed. Or when Bumi pretended you had broken his arm when you airbended a little too close to him. Or that one time –"

"Alright, alright. I take your point. I may have been a little thin-skinned, as a child."

"Right, _'as a child'_ ," she teased.

"It's not my fault my siblings are evil and love tormenting me," he grumbled.

"No, Tenzin, but you make it too easy for them." She smirked at him for a second longer before remembering what they had been talking about in the first place. "So, Pema then. To be fair, she did dare to antagonize thirty year old me, that does take some serious guts."

"Hmm." He seemed to close off, and, suddenly, she wondered if the memory of the confrontation still made him uncomfortable. It had been an ugly breakup, for all of them, and looking back a part of her did wish she could take everything back. She had let her emotions get the better of her, because she had been so hurt, and angry, and resentful, that he would fall in love with someone who was the polar opposite of her: light-hearted, soft-spoken, girl-like, happy to share every part of her life with him. He had found in Pema everything he had been missing in Lin. Looking back now, she knew their split had been a long time coming, knew that they had been falling apart for years, but for some reason it had not lessened the heartbreak when it had finally happened.

She also came to understand that Tenzin had never meant to hurt her, it was a feeling she slowly had to make room for, to find forgiveness in her, and eventually allow him back in her life.

"I'm sorry."

"What for?" There was surprise in his voice and he turned his face to her, but she avoided meeting his eyes.

"You know... giving you hell, back then."

"Oh," he replied, and he still sounded so puzzled that she questioned briefly if his thoughts had been going in the same direction as hers. Or maybe he was just surprised she would apologise after all this time. "I don't –, you don't have to – ." She could feel his warm hand land on hers, squeezing it, just for a moment before letting go. "Thank you, for saying that. We both did and said some things at that time that we regret. We were under a lot of pressure, weren't we? Maybe in another life, things would have been easier."

"Yeah," Lin said quietly.

 _Hey_ , a voice came from their right, _at least you guys aren't dead._

* * *

It was nightfall when they arrived at the South Pole, and were greeted warmly by Katara and Kya. Both women were a little reserved around the girl, and Lin didn't blame them for it. The kid looked just as chilling in the cold arctic lights as she did in the gloomy streets of Republic City and during the entire evening where Lin and Tenzin had dinner with his family, she kept to herself. When they finally settled for the night, Lin told Katara that she would let Yifei stay with her in her room. Katara had seemed worried, as did Tenzin, but Lin did not budge, and told both of them that she was certain the girl would be good and stay put. In truth, exactly one half of herself was sure of that. The other half did not want to take the risk of letting the kid's ghost run around and do anything destructive without Lin there to keep a close eye on her and, if necessary, stop her. Either way, the girl needed to stay with her.

"Don't wander off," Lin told the kid who had taken a seat on a cushion. "When I wake up tomorrow, I want to see you exactly in the same spot, got it?"

_Yes._

"Good." Lin observed her carefully, the way she had drawn her knees up and hugged them close. Sometimes she forgot how human the black shaped ghost could look. "Have you decided if you want to come with us tomorrow?"

_I want to come._

"Okay, good. Try to get some rest, kid. If anything bothers you tonight, you can wake me, alright?"

The girl nodded, and turned her head to look out of the window, watching the flicker of lights in the sky.

"I'm not gonna sleep well anyway," Lin grumbled. "It's too fucking cold."

As she settled deep into the furs and started drifting off, she thought she heard the girl quietly humming to herself. 

* * *

The first thought that went through Lin's mind the moment they had stepped out of the portal on the other side had been that it could be worse. The Spirit World looked fairly normal, and the spirits gliding around across the sky didn't irritate her anymore, either. They've had enough of those in Republic City at this point. Her nonchalance changed however after they've started to walk and the landscape changed to something much more bothersome. Lin saw colours that she was sure didn't even have names for them and no tree had the right to be this purple. Something else she noticed was that Tenzin seemed somewhat directionless, though he was clearly trying to hide it. After they made the next vague turn, she lost her patience.

"Didn't you say you know where we're going?"

"I _do_ know where we're going. It's the how to get there I'm working on." He spread his hands defensively at her look. "It's not like there's a map."

Lin pressed her fingers to her temples where she could feel a distinct throb forming. This world was too shrill, too illusive. Republic City was gritty, and harsh, but it was _real_ , and she knew what to expect. In here, nothing made sense to her. And as much faith as she had in Tenzin, she never underestimated his tendency to do something ridiculous. Especially when he knelt down to talk to a vegetable sticking halfway out of the ground. "Excuse me, madam, we're looking for the Eternal Ice. Would you be so kind to give us directions?"

"Tenzin? Tenzin, you're talking to a carrot."

"Hey!" an offended voice squeaked, and Tenzin turned to her, chidingly "Please, Lin." He pointed at the carrot with the flat of his hand. "It's clearly a radish."

Lin stared at him in bewilderment, before she shook her head to herself. "Oh that's alright then," she said flatly.

She left Tenzin to his chat with the carrot and went to Yifei, whose dark form looked as out of place in the shrill surroundings as Lin felt.

"How're you holding up, kid?"

_It's... a lot._

Lin snorted.

_You know, I've never seen anything outside of Republic City. And I feel like, after this trip, I've seen it all._

"You and me both, kid. I have been outside of the Republic plenty but I still feel like this is going to top everything," she said as she shot Tenzin another glance who was still kneeling in front of the vegetable, completely immersed in their chitchat.

_Thank you for doing this._

"Hey," Lin grabbed the girl's arm when she noticed her abashed posture and said with emphasis, "it's no problem, okay?"

"I know where we have to go," Tenzin announced as he joined them again, and Lin dropped her hand. "If we head that way, we're going to get on a path, and as long as we follow it, it will lead us directly to where we want to go! The radish spirit told me not to leave it though, and she sounded pretty serious about it, so I think we should pay heed to that."

"Fine by me," Lin remarked. "I have no desire to go exploring."

The same could not be said for Tenzin. Now that they were on a clear path, he started to pay more and more attention to their surroundings, sometimes halting to look at something closely, until Lin shooed him along.

They were crossing a pasture, and in the light coming from the bright orb in the sky, the blades of grass were shimmering in rainbow-coloured opalescence. Suddenly, the grass started to move, transforming into a colourful illusion of waves. Her hair was lightly whipping around her face, too.

"Tenzin, quit fooling around." She didn't have to turn to know he had been creating the breeze; he wasn't as subtle as he thought he was. The wind ebbed off immediately, and when she finally shot him a side-glance, he looked a little sheepish, but mostly delighted.

* * *

Tenzin's enthusiasm did not waver the slightest the further they went. At some point the path was lined with flowers whose petals turned into butterflies when something touched them, flying over them in colourful swarms. Lin seemed entirely unimpressed, but he could tell that she wasn't hating it as much as she was pretending to.

"This is amazing." He knew he was practically gaping, and Lin shot him a dry look that didn't quite conceal the amusement in her eyes. 

"Haven't you already been to the Spirit World, with Kya and Bumi?"

"Yes, but that time I was so worried about Jinora, I didn't really get to enjoy it as much. And besides, I came with Kya and Bumi –"

"– and you were bickering the entire time," she finished for him.

"Pretty much, yeah."

 **_You_ ** _bicker._

They both turned in surprise at the girl's comment. She rarely ever spoke up if she wasn't being addressed first, but this was the second time now where she almost sounded... sassy. Like a real teenage girl, Tenzin thought.

"That's different," Tenzin argued.

_Yeah, how so?_

"Yes, Tenzin, how so?" Lin said and turned to him with expectedly raised eyebrows.

"Well, first of all, because my older siblings are a lot meaner than Lin is." He ignored her snort. "And secondly, Lin can be mean but she never really _means_ it,–"

"Oh, I mean it," Lin muttered under her breath.

"– she's just grumpy," he finished. "So, it's not really bickering, it's more like –"

_– flirting._

"What?! No, that's not –"

"We're absolutely not –"

"I was gonna say healthy arguing!" Both him and Lin started protesting immediately and he was sure his face was positively flushed.

_Calm down, I was kidding._

"Well, that was completely unnecessary and not very mature," he admonished the girl, trying to sound authoritative like he would do with his own children but still feeling very flustered.

_Lin was right, you make it too easy._

Tenzin turned to Lin with an accusing look who raised her hands in mock surrender. "Don't look at me like that, I didn't set her up to this. You're easily flappable, that's on you."

"I am _not_ flappable. Also, you're in no position to call me out. Out of the both of us, you've always been the hothead."

"Please," she crossed her arms and said to the girl, "I was as docile as a lamb."

He knew she was being sarcastic, but he still couldn't stop himself from taking the bait.

"No you were not! You let yourself be riled up all the time. Remember that one boy at the Academy that always provoked you when you were sparring, so much that you lost your temper plenty of times and you got excluded from the mats because of that. You almost didn't pass your last year if not –" he stopped himself just in time and hoped she hadn't noticed his almost slip-up. 

She crossed her arms and squinted her eyes at him, before shrugging nonchalantly. "Whatever. Good thing then that he didn't show to my final rank test. Didn't he get sick on the very same day because he ate something funny? Lucky me."

"Um, yeah. The universe can be peculiar like that." He felt heat rise to his ears, and that she immediately picked up on.

"Tenzin?"

"Hm, yes?" He feigned innocence, and failed miserably.

"Tenzin. What are you not telling me?"

"I – ah. I was really worried he would provoke you, again, and that you would lose your cool, so, I figured, if he wasn't there –"

"You gave him _food poisoning?_ " Lin asked, incredulously.

"I did not! Not exactly. I, ummm – so, do you remember those, uh, mushrooms, that Kya and Bumi used to have?"

She blinked at him for a second, before the right conclusion clicked into place. "You didn't," she gasped. "You got him **_high?_** "

"I didn't know what else to do!" he exclaimed, his voice coming out a little higher than usual.

Her mouth gaped open in utter disbelief, before she started to laugh.

"I cannot believe I never knew. I cannot believe you, of all people, would do such a devious thing. Master 'Hope-of-future-generations-of-Airbenders', I am scandalised."

He started to argue his own defence, of which no part was coherent, and she was still grinning as his ears burned in shame. Then she punched him hard in his ribs and he yelped, rubbing the sore spot.

"What was that for?"

"To shut you up, mostly. But also, to thank you. I should be furious with you, you know? Because technically, you did go behind my back. But," she said, and he saw a small smile around the corners of her mouth that even reached her eyes, "I appreciate the gesture. So thank you. I know how many principles you must have thrown into the wind for that. _Drugs_ , Tenzin, really... ."

She shook her head at him and continued walking, muttering a smug 'see, don't let the wise-man beard fool ya' to the girl, and he looked after her for a moment, realising that he could not really feel regret for what he did it if it meant seeing her laugh again for the first time in 20 years, before hastily catching up with them.

* * *

The landscapes varied so fast and wildly Lin was sure she'd get whiplash from it. Some looked almost normal, and some were plain weird. At some point the path was winding itself through a valley surrounded by blue mountains, and in the next moment, they were in a meadow with iridescent, aromatic herbs. There were flowers, as tall as trees, and trees, as tall as buildings. They walked through a scenery of rubber-like plants with thick, round leaves, big like umbrellas. At some point their path led alongside a huge tree, with a gnarly trunk and a vast number of roots, which fanned out in all directions around it, some of them right across the path they were travelling on. Lin noticed a golden glow in them, like veins running inside the tendrils all the way up to the leafy canopy. Yifei was the first to cross them, then Tenzin, then Lin. The moment she stepped on the web of roots she felt it pulsating beneath her feet, and suddenly, the tree came to life, winding its roots around her legs and her torso, pulling her in. The golden veins, she realised, were no longer golden, but had turned into a bright, throbbing red. She yelped, and began struggling against the firm grip of the plant that was crushing her body and cutting her lungs off air.

"Lin!" Tenzin was by her side in a heartbeat, looking panicked. 

She couldn't reach her metal cables, which were trapped between her body and the roots, and when Lin tried to use Earthbending on the ground around the trunk, the vines drew tighter around her and she gasped in pain.

"Lin, don't fight it."

She saw Tenzin lean back, inspecting the tree that was holding her, before his face lit up.

"I know what kind of tree this is! I've read about them. They have some kind of nectar in their roots, so to protect themselves against rodents and bugs they capture anything that feels like a threat to them. The roots wind themselves around their victim, and then hold them there until they suffocate or bigger spirit animals come... to eat... them." His voice trailed off when he noticed her glare.

"Well, I'm so glad at least one of us is getting such a kick out of this." Lin tried pulling herself free again, to no prevail. "Why didn't it get you?" she snapped, growing more and more irritated.

"It's probably my natural skill of being very light on my feet, while you walk very... firmly."

She squinted her eyes at him.

"Don't worry," he grinned, "I can fix this!" He started to move away from her but she reached out to grasp his wrist instinctively.

"Tenzin, I swear to all of the Avatar's past lives, if you leave me here and I get eaten by a carnivorous rabbit I'm going to come back and haunt you until you die."

"I'm not going to leave you, Lin." He knelt down again and reached out to brush away a few leaves that had gotten caught up in her hair. "Do you trust me?"

"No," she lied.

"Wait here. I'll be right back."

"Tenzin...," she felt panic rise but he was already gone, a flutter of yellow and red disappearing within the leaves above her. She tried pulling herself free once more but it was as fruitless as before, the roots too tightly wound around her.

" 'Wait here'," Lin growled. "'Wait here'. It's not like I have a choice," she yelled and hoped he had heard her.

She shot Yifei a disgruntled look and asked, "Anything you can do about this, kiddo?"

 _I could set the tree on fire?_

Lin narrowed her eyes. There was a fifty-fifty chance that might work, and half of the odds meant she would either be squashed or burned to death. Maybe Tenzin had a point, and she was a bit of a hothead, but she wasn't an idiot.

"Thanks, I'll pass."

She was beginning to feel dizzy from the shortage of oxygen when, all of a sudden, the grip around her weakened and, without hesitating, Lin pushed herself up and out of her wooden trap. She was panting, holding a hand against her aching ribs where she was sure some colourful bruises were forming this very instant, when she felt the gush of air and Tenzin landed on the ground right next to them.

"It worked," he exclaimed and quickly started pulling her away from the roots, probably before the tree would change its mind and squash them after all. 

"Bless the scrolls," she muttered.

"They really did help this time," he pointed out and she had to give him that.

* * *

What had started out as a small cluster of lanky trees, soon turned into a forest that was becoming thicker the further they went. Before, there had been mostly various, oversized flowers and plants, and here and there an occasional tree; now, the trees stood so close to each other that the sky above could not be seen through the leafage. It was not dark, though, because the tree trunks and leaves emanated a glow, like they were lit up by the beams of a nonexistent sun and the path they followed was wide and clear.

Tenzin suddenly realised that Lin wasn't beside him anymore, and he turned back to see what was holding her up. "Is everything alright?"

She did not reply, standing stock-still a few feet away, with her eyes fixed on something by the wayside.

"Lin?" he said as he came to stand beside her, and saw a gaping hole inside a slope.

"There's something down there. I can feel it."

He stared into the tunnel. It was pitch black, and the more he looked, the more he got the strange sensation that the void was sucking him in. Wherever this path led, it must run deep into the earth. And whatever it was that she could sense down there, he didn't think they should wait for it to find them. 

"Come on." He tugged at her wrist when she didn't move. "We should keep going, Lin."

The sound of her name and his touch seemed to snap her out of her trance, and she nodded and let him pull her away.

The path was winding itself through the forest, until they suddenly stepped out of it into the clear and stopped dead in their tracks. The path they had followed went right up to the edge of a cliff and then ended. They stood on the brink of a gaping chasm, lying between them and the other side. Tenzin leaned forward slightly to peer down, but he saw nothing but fog, and there was no way to tell how deep down the ground was.

"The other side's not too far," Lin said, though she sounded hesitant, "I think we could make it."

Tenzin wavered, too. It was hard to judge the distance through the thick fog that was wafting through the cleft like mud after heavy rainfall, the outlines of the other side appearing and disappearing behind the mist. They had to move forward though, and he was about to consent on trying when he spotted something inside the fog.

"Over there!" he exclaimed and pointed a finger in the direction where he had seen it.

Lin followed his line of sight, eyebrows drawing together in concentration as she tried to make out what he was pointing at.

"I see nothing," she muttered.

"No, look closer," he urged, and then, out of the swirling clouds came the faint silhouette of a bridge into sight, at least six feet further down than where they were standing now, narrow, with no parapet, not even a simple handrail. He heard Lin exhale next to him.

"Can you move the fog a little," she asked, "right where the path ends?"

Tenzin began shifting the air just so that a vacuum of clear wind emerged and through this hole in the mist they saw ledges in the rocks, so small and narrow that they could be barely considered as steps, but they both realised that that was exactly what they were meant to be, so with a brief look at each other and a silent exchange they started climbing down the cliff. Lin had no problems finding her footing, and Tenzin was sure she even cheated a little and made the flats of the ledges bigger as she went. He followed her, his Airbending lifting him lightly from step to step. Yifei had the least trouble, she probably could have floated right across the chasm, but had stayed with them out of solidarity as they made their way down to the bridge.

The bridge was made of stone and seemed stable enough, but it was disquietingly narrow and with nothing to hold on to. Beyond that came the fact that they had descended so far into the sea of fog that they could barely make out anything that wasn't right in front of them, not even their own feet.

 _I'll go first_ , the girl offered.

Lin seemed like she wanted to argue, but since the girl was practically a ghost and not bound to any rules of physics there wasn't really a good reason to worry so she swallowed down her first instinct of concern and agreed. She did however set the first foot on the bridge, metallic sole of her boot removed, and Tenzin assumed she wanted to reassure herself of its stability.

"Alright," she finally said.

Cautiously, they made their way over the bridge. Tenzin did his best to clear away as much fog as he could to allow them to see where they put their next step, at least. Small stones crumbled off the edge as they went and were swallowed instantly by the murky clouds. They never heard them reach the bottom.

It wasn't a long walk but they moved so slowly that it took longer than probably needed and Tenzin was relieved when they finally reached the other side without any accidents. There they found the continuation of the path through a mountain range and from then on Tenzin felt colder with every step he took, until they stepped out into the open and he knew they had found their destination. Before them lay a wasteland of ice, stretching out in all directions with no end in sight, blending in at the horizon with the grey sky above it.

A sense of conclusiveness came over him, even though the moment of final truth was still ahead of them.

"Which way?" Lin asked, but Yifei had started moving, wordlessly, as if she was being pulled into that direction by an invisible force, and Lin and Tenzin followed her after exchanging a brief look.

They walked so far into the desert that after a while there was nothing but ice as far as their eyes could see. Tenzin remembered reading about this place, the lore surrounding its existence. It was said to be the final resting place for spirits whose time had come and who were deceased, but as he looked around he saw nothing to indicate their presence and he wondered how exactly the spirit afterlife worked.

Each of their steps was accented by the sound of a thin layer of snow being squeezed down as they walked with purpose, only the girl knowing where they were headed. Tenzin's eyes drifted down, and he saw a glimmer of gold on the frozen surface. As he looked closer, he discerned various spots of colour all around them, so faint they were almost unnoticeable if you didn't look for it, perfectly blending with the ice crystals they were embedded in. His stomach turned as he realised he just got the answer to his question and he walked faster, trying to blend out the scrunching noise beneath his feet.

Lin's sharp inhale was what drew him back into the present, and he came to a halt beside her and caught sight of what she had seen. There was a body, lying face down in the snow. Still too many feet afar to make out who it was or what it looked like, but they didn't need to wonder – the realisation hit them with full force and certainty. Yifei had stopped, too. If she was scared, or upset, or simply unsure what to do, he did not know. But he stepped to her side, and laid a hand on her shoulder.

"Whenever you're ready," he said gently. "Lin and I are not going anywhere."

The girl gave a jerky nod, and then stretched out her hand behind her, and Lin, apprehending the gesture, came up to them and took her hand in hers, giving it a quick squeeze. He shot Lin a glance, and saw the defined lines of her jaw by how tightly she clenched it. Then Yifei stepped forward, directly towards her own body and, with a last look back, she kneeled down and then... melted into the solid form on the ground, until she had disappeared completely.

For a few, long seconds, Lin and him waited with baited breath. He began to wonder if he should lift the girl's body up and carry her back, when, suddenly, the limbs of the teenager twitched and then, slowly, the entire body started to rise, pushing herself up. Lin hurried forward immediately, helping the girl up to her feet.

"Yifei, how are you feeling?" Tenzin inquired cautiously.

"Heavy."

Her skin was almost as pale as the snow around them, and she was leaning on Lin who seemed to be the only thing stopping the girl from dropping back to the ground. Yifei was neither very tall nor very muscled and Lin had no trouble half-carrying her the way back through the desert. At some point, however, the girl had detached herself from Lin's grip and started walking on her own volition. Very slowly, still, but steadily forwards.

Once they reached the bridge, however, things got tougher again. Crossing the chasm with Yifei in her real body was a lot more strenuous endeavour than it had been with ghost Yifei, who had now lost the ability to float, but also seemed to have difficulties controlling her motions. Every step seemed arduous, and Lin and Tenzin both steadied the girl on more than one occasion so she wouldn't stumble and fall off the narrow bridge. When they had to make their way up the stone wall, she could barely hold on. Lin had to carry her up, holding onto her as well as supporting her own weight so she would not fall. Once they were inside the forest, though, their journey went easier, and they followed the path almost mindlessly, both Tenzin and Lin tired and lost in their own thoughts. Yifei walked a step ahead of them, a little wearily, and her limbs more out of phase than he would have liked, but she seemed stable enough. There was a flicker though, from time to time, so subtle that he could barely discern it, as if her body and her spirit were struggling to stay together.

"She seems okay," Lin's whispered pensively. "Her body has been here all this time, maybe this world has preserved it. It doesn't _look_ harmed."

Tenzin didn't know how to reply. His feeling told him that there was no coming back for the girl, that her fate had been sealed the moment the fire had taken her, but telling that to Lin broke his heart. He saw it in her eyes, the feeling of hope kindling in them, and wouldn't it be crueller to first let her hope, only for it to be entirely crushed later, without anything to soften the blow? Where was the mercy in that?

"Lin," he said very softly, "I don't think –"

In that moment a flock of birds fluttered up from the thicket to their left, crossing their path with loud voices and a swoosh of a dozen pair of wings, before breaking through the forest canopy into the open.

Afterwards, Lin hurried forwards to check on Yifei, who had been caught in the middle of it, grabbing the girl's shoulder to make sure she didn't get hurt by a claw or wing, and he lost the heart to try it again.

* * *

Lin knew what Tenzin had wanted to say. He was so easy to read. Deep down Lin knew it would be a mistake not to prepare herself for the worst, to make her peace with the fact that once they exited the Spirit World, they would bring a body home, and nothing more. But a foolish part of her couldn't help but hope, because Tenzin might think there was no way for the kid to live, but he couldn't possibly know for sure, since a case like that had never existed before. Nobody knew what would happen once they made their way back. And Katara was waiting for them on the other side, the best healer in the world, the wife of Avatar Aang – if somebody could mend a soul, it would be her.

"Did my mother leave Republic City?"

Yifei hadn't spoken much since her spirit had reunited with her body, and her words sounded sluggish, like the voice of someone who was on the edge of falling asleep. It was in the way she moved too, like she had to carry a dead weight.

"She went to Ba Sing Se, to live with relatives."

"I've never met them, never been outside of Republic City my whole life. It was always just my mom and me. I hated that." The girl fell quiet for a moment, a look of shame coming over her soft face. "I made my mom's life really hard, when I should have helped her. She was always working so I could have a shot in life, go to school, and I didn't even do that. I have been so selfish."

"I have made some selfish choices too, by trying to do everything right by my mother, doing everything I could just to win her favour. I played by the books, at all times. And I lost a great deal to it." Involuntarily, and just for a second, before she even realised what she had done, her eyes flickered up to the figure walking ahead of them. "In the end, I'm not even sure if it had been worth it. I think, for most of us, life leaves little room for regrets. We make a choice, and then we live with it the best way we can." Lin put a hand on the girls shoulder, not knowing how else to offer comfort.

"Will you tell my mom that I love her, and that I'm so very sorry?"

There was a lump in her throat that she tried to swallow down. "Why don't you tell her yourself, once we get back, okay?" She squeezed the shoulder beneath her palm briefly, before letting her arm drop. "You're a good kid. And I'm sure your mother knows."

The girl nodded heavily, before a tinge of liveliness ghosted over her face.

"So why did you two break up?"

"What?" Lin retorted, taken by surprise by the sudden change of topic.

"I can tell there's a history that neither of you feels comfortable talking about, and I don't know if you know, but I'm a nosy person. Also, sharing personal things is an important part of the bonding experience when you're on a field trip, and I already did my part."

Lin furrowed her brows, but the girl was looking at her expectantly, and for the first time there was something like a spark in her eyes, so she gave in – a little. "Sorry, kid. There's not much to tell. We started dating when we were young, because we were in the same circle, we were friends and it made sense. Then we grew up, and our lives went separate ways and, before we noticed, it was too late."

"Did you still love each other?"

"I –," Lin faltered. "It was more complicated than that."

"Maybe. But the question is simple."

Lin tried to fight down the irritation creeping up in her. There was a reason why she avoided talking about personal things, she didn't like whatever came bubbling up to the surface in that process. There was no point in lingering on things that were long over, anyway. 

The girls eyes were on her though, wide and brown like soil, and alive, and Lin felt herself give in.

"I did," she spoke very quietly. "He didn't. Whatever good we've had going on turned sour by the end, until his heart found a softer, quieter home."

She remembered their arguments, the same arguments over and over again, that had left one of them storming out more than once – him to the temple, her to work. They had been holding on for as long as they could, her out of stubbornness and him because he had a kind soul and still felt an obligation to her. But she had been uncompromising in her youth, and had pushed when she should have pulled, and there was only so much a relationship could take.

"So... you're saying he was unhappy with you and fell in love with someone else?"

"Yes." She heard her own voice come out strained and a weight was pressing down on her chest.

"I think," Yifei said slowly, "that you should ask him if he recalls it the same way."

Before Lin could ask the girl what she meant by that, Tenzin's voice caught her attention and she looked ahead to see that he had stopped walking.

"That is strange," she heard him murmur when she walked up to his side.

"What is?"

His bushy eyebrows were contracted and she didn't like the frown she saw as he looked at the moss covered roots along the path.

"Tenzin," she repeated, and he finally looked at her.

"It's nothing, it's just... do you feel like it's getting darker?"

Now that he mentioned it she noticed it, too. The bright green of the forest around them had gradually become grey, as if a shadow was casting itself over it.

"Maybe it's just nightfall," she said.

"Yeah... maybe." She knew he was lying but didn't say anything. "I think we should better go on."

They kept walking but the path in front of them became harder to see by the minute, until it was barely distinguishable and she stayed so close to Tenzin that she could feel his shoulder brushing hers from time to time. Her hand was holding onto Yifei's arm, gently pulling her along.

"Are you sure this is the way we came from?"

"Yes," he said, not sounding sure at all.

The further they walked, the stronger became the unease washing over her. She felt like they were being watched. By the shadows between the trees, the ground they were walking on. It was this world, she decided. It knew they didn't belong, and it could sense them like foreign matter in a body. She had a grim hunch that it would soon start to reject them, and with that feeling, she heightened her senses more than ever before. 

"I know where we are," Tenzin said suddenly and pointed to the large fluorescent mushroom to their left. "We passed that before."

Yes, she thought, they had. Right after they had come by the tunnel. The tunnel that –  
The earth wheezed and she stopped dead in her tracks. She could feel Tenzin's steps but that was not what she was looking for. "Stop walking," she hissed at him. She could barely make out his form as he turned back to her in confusion. Lin shut off all her senses to focus everything on the feeling beneath her feet, as the earth was calling to her. There was a vibration in the ground. Barely noticeable, but there. She would have dismissed it as root voles, if her instinct hadn't told her that something was wrong. She removed the metal from under the soles of her feet and placed them back on the earth below, digging them into the dirt. And then she felt it. Something was moving towards them, something – huge, and with rapid speed.

"Tenzin!" she exclaimed, inexplicable dread filling her lungs. "Tenzin... something's coming."

The earth beneath her feet was trembling and suddenly something shot out of the same tunnel they had stopped at before, winding itself high, higher up into the air, a long, thick body, towering above them. The fluorescent lights of the forest illuminated the creature and Lin saw four eyes, milky white and glossy, a mouth hanging wide agape that bared hundreds of needle-sharp teeth to them and at its snout were two feelers that were writhing like worms. The moray-like creature was winding itself left and right, ten feet over their own heads, sniffing, searching. Lin's nails left marks on her skin as her hands were balled into fists, and she didn't dare to move. Didn't dare to breathe, her heart beating loudly in her ear. The beast craned its head into the air, feelers pulsating wildly, when suddenly its nostrils flared and the writhing stopped. Then it turned its eyes directly at them.

 _"Jump!"_ Lin yelled and a second later the giant jaw crashed into where they had been just a breath ago, splintering the trees in its path. Lin scrambled back to her feet, frantically looking out for Tenzin, hoping that he had made it. She grabbed Yifei's arms and pushed her between a couple of large tree trunks, hissing _"Stay here"_ , before running back to face the creature, and to find Tenzin. She had no other choice but to let herself be led half by her seismic sense, half by instinct, because as soon as they had left the path, darkness had pressed in on them, drowning out the few bleak lights that had remained until then. Now Lin saw nothing but shapes and shadows. She bumped into something that almost knocked her off her feet if two hands hadn't reached out to steady her.

"Lin, you're okay." Tenzin's voice sounded breathless with relief, and she knew the feeling. She desperately wanted to hold onto him, but –

"Not for long, if we don't keep moving."

The sound of breaking wood followed them, surrounding them, as the thick body of the creature wormed its way through the trees. She wondered if they would be able to outrun it if they didn't even know where they were running to, the path long abandoned. They needed to find the girl, too. She pulled Tenzin in the direction where she thought she had left Yifei when suddenly a head shot out from between the trunks, mouth wide ajar. The tentacles were glowing in a pale white light, trembling with pent up ravenousness. Lin kicked up a large piece of ground and sent the slab towards the beast, right between its teeth. A growl resonated deep from its throat and then, with barely an effort, it snapped its entire jaw shut, crushing the rock like it was made of dust. 

Lin realised that any attempt at flight was fruitless. The creature was always going to catch up with them, and cut off any path they chose. This was its realm, and they were like two flies who had fallen into a pond, struggling to get out, before the shadows lurking in the deep would get them.

"Tenzin," she exclaimed and grabbed his arm to make sure he would hear her. The beast shot forward and Tenzin yanked them a few feet to the side with a blast of air.

"Tenzin, you need to get out of here." She could feel the body moving towards them again and she kicked a wall of rocks sharp like spears from the ground. The sound of a pained hiss confirmed she had aimed right and she turned back to Tenzin.

"I'll hold if off as long as I can while you take Yifei and go."

"No!"

"Don't be stupid, Tenzin. There's no point in us both dying here, and my chances are better than yours."

"I'm not leaving you." His voice was as loud as hers now, and she saw the horror on his face.

"For spirits' sake!" she yelled, "Your children, your wife! Are you ready to let go of them? Are they ready to let go of _you_?"

There was such an ire in her voice that he stumbled back a few steps and she prayed that he'd finally gotten it through his thick, bald skull and made the right choice. She didn't wait to find out because she felt the beast approaching them fast and when its ugly head shot through the trees she used a rock to push herself up through the air, a hungry mouth following her, and landed several feet away. She rolled herself to the side when sharp teeth came crashing down to the spot where she'd been seconds ago.

The tail of the creature lunged out and Lin, being a millisecond too slow, was hit point-blank, the blow flinging her backwards against a large tree and knocking all air out of her lungs. She fell to the ground, coughing, wheezing, as the beast opened its jaw above her.

Then she saw something that made her heart drop into her gut. Yifei had appeared from behind the trees, staggering slightly, but with purpose, towards the creature that had its pupilless eyes set on Lin. The shuffling noises of the girls feet made the beasts head whip around, fangs bared. In a reflex, Lin lunged forward and shot out her metal cable. It whirred as it cut through the air and, with a slushy noise, it whipped right across one of the foggy eyes. The beast let out a rattling, heart-piercing scream, and suddenly, so fast that her bruised body had no time to react, its tongue darted out and broke right through her armor. A sharp pain shot through her, and her vision started to blur. She thought she heard her name, far off in the distance as she fell to the ground. The last thing she saw was a glaring light. Then everything went dark.

* * *

Lin woke up to a dull throbbing in her temple. She tried remembering what had happened. They'd been in the Spirit World. A giant moray had attacked them. She'd fought it, and then it had done.. something, with its tongue. It had stabbed her, and she'd lost consciousness. Was she still there? Probably. And Tenzin, had he made it out? She opened her eyes.

She was in a bed, in a room that looked a lot like it belonged to Aunt Katara's home. Did that make sense? She couldn't remember coming back here. She shouldn't have. Didn't the spirit monster get her? Maybe she was still there, she mused, and hallucinating. The pain felt real though. Wherever she was, she should probably move. Her body felt like lead, but she pushed herself up anyway.

"Hey," she recognised his voice and in a heartbeat Tenzin was next to her, using his hand to steady her and help her sit up. "Easy, Lin. You shouldn't get up yet. Rest."

"I can rest when I'm dead. And I'm assuming I'm not." If she hadn't been sure if this was real or not, now she knew. The cold of the ice, the ache in her limbs, the familiar hand on her back and his stupid, worried face. "What the hell, Tenzin." She felt anger rising in her chest – good, anger was better than pain. "Please, for the love of the Avatar, tell me you didn't come back for me."

She didn't need to wait for his reply, because she saw it right on his face. "You're an idiot," she groaned. "What were you thinking?"

"I was thinking that I couldn't leave you behind. Again." His expression was soft, unaffected by her anger, but his tone was decisive. Just like that, she felt her anger ebb away.

"But your family..."

"You're family, too." He moved to bolster up the pillow so she could lean back into it in a comfortable sitting position. "Are you hungry?" he asked.

"No." Then she remembered why they had gone to the Spirit World in the first place and she gripped his wrist to get his attention. "What happened to Yifei? Did you leave her?"

"I didn't, I promise," he said, turning his palm up so he could take her hand in his. "She's here. She is...," he trailed off for a second before he said, "We all made it out. I got... help. My dad."

She inhaled sharply. "Aang was there?"

"Yes. You told me to leave, and I tried, Lin. I really tried. I took Yifei and was ready to go, and then I looked back. And I saw that thing strike you down. I know I should have run, because that was why you were fighting in the first place. But I turned back. I couldn't leave you there, I just couldn't. But when I started to move, suddenly my father was there, right between the creature and you. He raised his hands and there was a light and the spirit fled back into the tunnel. My dad led us back to the exit, and my mother healed you. It took her a while to get the poison out, and we were worried you wouldn't wake up. I'm so glad you did," he began to raise his free hand, hesitating for a moment, and then finally reaching out all the way to carefully brush her hair from her face. His thumb grazed her cheekbone, lightly, lingered – then he withdrew. 

Lin didn't know what to say. Her brain felt like it was grinding itself with the effort it took her to think.

"Yifei," she said finally, "where is she now?"

His hand around hers tightened. "I'm sorry, Lin. As soon as we stepped out of the portal the magic of the Spirit World wore off. We saw her spirit leave her body. Her real spirit, not the shadow of it. She can rest peacefully now."

She nodded. A feeling, like a weight settling on her chest, overcame her, and she forced herself further up, pushing her legs out of the bed.

"I want to see her," she said firmly.

Tenzin hesitated. "I don't think you should get up yet."

"Show me."

She left no room for an argument, so he nodded, despite still looking unhappy about it. With his help she got up from the bed and together they walked to the place where they had laid the girl out. A sheet was covering her body, making her frame look too small, too wispy. Lin had done this many times, but as she reached out to lift the cloth to reveal the face, her hand faltered, and after a moment she pulled it away, letting it fall back to her side. Tenzin had kept his distance, mindful to give her some privacy, some space to grieve unobserved. But as she was standing there, uncertain, his hand carefully brushed her arm and he told her to follow him.

He led her to a little shrine in the hall outside the room that they had placed Yifei in, and he gestured to the incense sticks which were neatly stacked by its side. Lin shot Tenzin a look; she wasn't a very spiritual person, never has been, but he gave her an encouraging nod.

"Try it."

She exhaled, and gingerly reached out to take a stick between her fingertips. She rolled it, back and forth, back and forth, between them. Getting used to the feeling, before placing it between her two palms. There was a candle, flickering in the middle of the altar, and she leaned forward, until the tip of the stick touched the flame. It did a little hiss, and then clear smoke started rising in spirals, filling the air with an earthy scent. Like wet soil, in a pine forest. It made her feel dizzy, and calm, and she wanted nothing more than to close her eyes and breath it in until she fell asleep. Before her legs actually gave out she bowed, again, and then pushed the stick carefully into the sand-filled bowl next to the candle.

"I don't think I've been doing this right," she said, her voice sober.

"I don't think that matters," he replied softly. "Come on, let's go eat."

* * *

At dinner, Lin only took a few bites before she started moving the food from one side of her plate to the other. She knew her stomach wouldn't thank her later, but she was barely hungry, and felt no appetite whatsoever, that in the end raising the chopsticks and the process of chewing didn't seem worth the effort.

"You should get some more rest," Katara said at some point, and Lin could see the sympathetic look in her kind eyes that she'd noticed often. As a child Lin had worshipped her own mother, and a simple nod of approval from her had filled Lin with such pride that she was willing to push herself to her limits, and beyond them. Earning approval meant gritting your teeth, swallowing your tears and getting things right. It had seemed so simple. When she'd spent time with Aang and Katara, however, the love just poured right out of them - through their eyes, over their lips, their hands. And no matter how chaotic and loud and mischievous their children were, no matter how well they did during their bending lessons, ... even if you weren't their own child at all - the love was always there, on the surface, plain for Lin to see. And she hadn't known what to make of it back then. Where did one put the love they didn't earn?

Kya offered to give Lin another healing session, and for Kya offering meant she simply refused to let Lin refuse. Afterwards, Lin settled onto her bed, but didn't lay down yet; instead she drew her legs up and hugged them close to her body. There was a knock on the door. Tenzin waited for her nod before he stepped inside the room and sat down on the edge of the bed, half turned to be able to look at her.

"We need to tell her mother." Her voice sounded strange to her own ears. "So she can come to Republic City, for the cremation."

"Yes," he said softly.

"I will radio Headquarters, tell them to send someone to Ba Sing Se to pick her up at the train station. She shouldn't have to worry about travel expenses."

He reached out to squeeze her hand, and tried to blink back the moisture collecting at the corner of his eyes. "She'll appreciate that very much. And everything else you have done for her daughter."

"It wasn't enough," she said quietly.

"It was enough."

Lin just shook her head, hearing him, but not really believing it.

"She was too young to pay such a high price for her mistakes. She should have been given the chance to find her way back. She was a good kid, she would have been okay."

He knew she was thinking of her sister, too. He had witnessed her worry and frustration first hand when she'd felt like Su's entire upbringing was resting on her shoulders. He wished he could have taken that burden from her back then. But taking on responsibility was in Lin's nature as much as it was in his. Suyin was free in every way Lin was not. She connected to people easily, had run off for adventures into the world and things always seemed to fall into place for her. Suyin had always known how to look out for herself. Lin though – she didn’t have a selfish bone in her body. She would be blunt and irritable and keep everyone at an arm's length but she cared, fiercely and genuinely. And she would always run towards the fire. It was the cruellest lesson in life, to learn that you could give everything, and still fail. There was no justice in that.

He squeezed her hand a little tighter and realised how reluctant he was to let go of it. She hadn't made any attempt to pull it away either. Maybe it anchored her as much as it did him in that moment. He didn't like how cool her skin felt. The thought that Lin had never liked the cold shot through his head.

"Would you mind if I stayed here tonight?"

"Fine," she grumbled and turned on her side, "but if you hog the blankets I'll kick you out."

"That's fair."

He settled in next to her and, feeling like it was the most natural thing to do, slipped his arm around her waist and intertwined their hands.  
  


* * *

She woke up very early the next morning. The sun was not yet up; from experience she knew it wouldn't rise for another few hours, but the sky was light and pale as if it was reflecting the icy ground beneath. Time always moved differently at the South Pole. His arm lay heavy on her ribs, and it was a comfortable weight. She turned in his embrace, mindful not to wake him. He was still asleep, his chest rising at a slow regular pace, and she felt puffs of air against her face. She hadn't been this close to him in a long time, and she studied every line, every new wrinkle, carefully tracing them with a fingertip that didn't quite touch him, trying to memorise them before he woke up, and the rotation of the earth would catch up with her again and bring a new day.

It wasn't long until he stirred, his eyes fluttering open.

"Hey," she whispered.

"Hey," he murmured back, voice thick with sleep.

She waited for him to say something, do something; to pull away.

"How are you?" His eyes roamed over her face, and he seemed to be looking for an answer beyond her physical condition.

"Good."

He understood, if the small smile tugging on the corners of his lips was anything to go by, and allowed himself to take her in a few heartbeats longer. "We still got a little while," he said softly. "Go back to sleep." He pulled her closer and with her head tucked under his chin and a soft kiss pressed to her hair now and then, she drifted off again.

* * *

They returned to the Island late in the afternoon, when the sun was bathing the sky in a hazy yellow light. Lin watched Tenzin being greeted with hugs and kisses by his family, a wistful smile on her face and her heart heavy in her chest while her hand rested on the solid form wrapped inside the blanket. They had agreed to keep Yifei's body on Air Temple Island until the funeral, instead of RP's morgue. It felt more appropriate, to have her second last resting place in a temple, instead of a mortuary in which Lin had stood witness to too much horror and tragedy. Some acolytes helped Lin lift Yifei off the saddle and carried her inside. Once alone, she stood there for a moment, not quite sure where to go from there. Her eyes drifted to the city, the never-ending mess of a city that she loved with every fibre of her being. Even when it wore her out; even when it broke her heart.

Her attempt at slipping away quietly was foiled when she felt a hand curl around her wrist. She hadn't noticed Tenzin coming up behind her, and for what felt like the millionth time she had to acknowledge how damn light on his feet he could be.

"Lin," he said, "you're leaving already?"

"Gotta head back." She gestured vaguely.

"Oh. Why don't you stay? Pema has prepared plenty of food, we would be glad to have you for dinner."

"I should really pop in at Headquarters."

"You're going back to work now?" She could see the disapproval plain on his face, could feel the wheels turning behind that blue arrow of his and already prepared herself for an argument, when his features softened all of a sudden.

"Okay. Just, take it slow, please? Try not to go home too late, and give yourself time to rest." This was a turn she had not expected, and she was sure she didn't hide her surprise. Eventually, she nodded.

"You too," she said and started to make her way down to the ferries.

"Lin?" She turned back at his voice to see him still standing in the same spot. There was an odd expression in his eyes, one that she didn't really know where to place. It was in his voice, too, when he spoke.

"Back then, I didn't leave because we were fighting. You know that, right? That's not why – I didn't mind. Because, when we fought it wasn't out of contempt; we argued because we cared. I would have gladly argued for the rest of our lives with you."

It took her a moment to realise he had carried her words around, like an itch under his skin, the same way she had carried the feeling that she had pushed him away, all those years ago. It was an affirmation, an absolution, an epigraph that said 'I loved you _on purpose_ , on purpose'. And suddenly, a weight fell off her chest, and despite the exhaustion, and the sadness, and the physical pain from the last few days a smile spread on her face and she saw it reflected back from his eyes as she said, "Me, too."And then she turned, and her steps felt lighter than they had in years.

* * *

Time flew by unnoticed, entire days passing where, as he looked back at them, he couldn't quite say what he'd been doing, until a week had gone by in a blink.

It was an odd sensation, he thought, to realise your conscious mind and its inner workings might just be two separate entities. That one could function independent from the other, while you didn't hold the slightest sway over it. There hadn't been a moment of decision, a clear intent behind his actions, but when he found himself in the courtyard of her home there was a sense of rightness to it, like he had known his feet were carrying him here all along.

He saw no lights on in her house, but he knocked on the door anyway and waited, waited, until he turned and started walking back.

"Tenzin."

The last time he had seen her had been at the cremation. The girl's mother, Mrs Wu, had arrived from Ba Sing Se a day after they had returned to Air Temple Island. She had cried; out of sadness, and relief, and gratitude. Tenzin had been the one to tell her their story, while Lin had stood by his side, stock-still, and when Mrs Wu began to thank them for bringing her girl home, and closure, Lin had quietly excused herself.

Now she was standing in the courtyard, hair a little ruffled, a grey dressing gown tightly wrapped around her, and the moonlight was falling on her just right – a sliver of Yue's spirit, caught in the fabrics and fibres and particles.

"Are you gonna come in or keep standing there like a lost baby deer?"

She didn't wait for his reply, and he followed her inside. Through the hallway they went and into her living room. She told him to sit while she went into the kitchen to prepare a cup of tea for him, but he followed her there, too, leaning against the doorframe to watch her work.

She didn't speak another word to him until they were back in her living room, each sitting on one of the sofas framing the low tea table, him holding a cup in his hands, her with her legs drawn up and tugged beneath her. It was a comfortable silence, the kind of silence that you feel when you've had a long day and your brain begins to wind down, or when you're sitting in a field and the wind is moving the leaves above your head, and all you can feel is contentment; and maybe a touch of wistfulness, if you were the melancholic type. In his case, it was all of those things.

"You look tired, Lin. I hope I didn't wake you."

"It's fine," she muttered, "Republic City always welcomes one back with a mountain of paperwork that Oma and Shu couldn't have dug past."

He hummed sympathetically.

"I hear Raiko has taken it on himself to praise the stopping of the 'incendiary crisis' as an accomplishment of his own policies."

She snorted. "Let him. It's not gonna save his ass in the next election."

"Talking of which, do you know who is planning to run against him? Zhu Li Moon."

"Varrick's assistant?"

"Wife, you mean."

"Eh," she waved her hand, "whatever. Good for her though. You think she could win?"

"I'm actually pretty certain. She is very competent and has proven herself during Kuvira's attack. Besides, she is an excellent diplomatist."

"I'm not surprised, she did manage not to strangle Varrick over the years. She's perfectly prepared for politics, it's filled with narcissists and fools."

"Lin," he admonished her mildly, but the corners of his mouth twitched.

She just shrugged, unconcerned, before focusing her eyes back on him.

"And what have you been up to?"

"Oh," he sighed. "Not much. I've had some time to attend air nomad duties again, morning meditation, studying and teaching. Some council work. And," he hesitated, "I have been thinking... about building community centres, for our youth, a safe place for young people to go to if they are having trouble at home or in their schools. You know, after the last few weeks, I felt like... we could be doing more. To make this city better."

Lin's features softened, and Tenzin continued, "I figured maybe the police academy could help train some of their people in the collaboration with social workers for these houses."

"I'm sure they can. But you're going to have to ask my deputy about that."

It took a moment for him to register her words, but when they sank in, they hit him like a rock.

"What are you saying?"

She seemed to avoid direct eye contact with him all of a sudden, dropping her gaze instead on her hands and took her time to adjust her dressing gown over her legs, before she folded them in her lap and looked back up again. 

"About three weeks ago, the new government of Ba Sing Se has asked me to come to the capital to implement a police force like our own. A police that exists for the protection of the people, and not an autocratic institution like the Dai Li. It's supposed to be a symbol for the end of an old chapter... and a chance for me to begin a new one. I dismissed it at first, there was no time to even think about it; but, now I did. And I said yes."

If he had felt like he got hit by a rock before, now the entire ground beneath him broke away.

"I – wow, that's, uh– when... um –." He wanted to respond, to say the right thing, but his mind was in a tangle and he did not know how he felt. Lin looked at him quietly, and with no judgement at the mess of his reaction.

"You don't have to say anything," she said, "but I thought you ought to know."

He nodded, trying to calm the storm in him. There was so much he needed to say, needed to know. _When are you leaving? How long will you be gone? Will you come back? What will Republic City do without you?_ _What will I_...– and then settled for the only thing that really mattered.

"I'm very happy for you, Lin. That is a huge accomplishment, and no one deserves it more than you."

"Thank you," she murmured. "It'll be good, I think. No more footsteps."

"When –," he had to clear his throat, which felt unnaturally dry, "when will you be going?"

"I'm leaving next week."

"So soon?"

His words were barely more than an exhale. Lin did not reply, because there was nothing to say, so she let him process the information in his own time while watching him with her chin resting on her palm. After a while he took a deep breath and gave her a sad smile.

"I'm sorry. I'm just having a hard time trying to adjust to the idea of a Republic City without you. You've always been a part of it. Such an important part, too. How will we manage?"

She huffed out a laugh. "You'll be fine. Anyone could do what I do, it's no rocket science. The key is simply to forgo sleep and having a personal life, forever."

"Oh, is that all?" he quipped back, and they shared a smirk that almost made him forget the ache he felt – almost.

"You'll be missed."

The three words revealed nothing secret, nothing inappropriate or odd, but the moment they left his mouth they felt– synonymous, for something he could not give voice to, but was now so sure of he was staggered that he had not recognized it for what it was sooner. 

Maybe he couldn't have. Both their lives were filled with so much noise, ever since they were children, a steady crescendo the older they got, reaching its peak too early, too soon. They had still been so young when their siblings had left, and Toph had resigned, and his father had died, and everything had fallen apart. And while he and Lin had bent over backwards to hold together the pieces, the only thing they hadn't been able to fix anymore was them. He'd held onto her until the last moment, and then he'd moved on in eager desperation. Afterwards, all that was left of them was the memory of the rift building between them, the final breakup and the hostile years of avoidance that followed. For the longest time, they had lived parallel lives, each of them loud and hectic, and he had been certain things would never quite go back to the way they used to be.

How could he have known that it would take only a pause, a moment where they had time to breathe in the same tact again; that in this stillness everything would fall back into place, and he'd fall back in love with Lin like he fell asleep – naturally, quietly, without noticing.

She followed him into the hallway to see him out, but he halted by the door, and turned back to her. He let himself take her in once more, the sharp angles of her face, and Tenzin had to stop himself from reaching out and tracing them all. 

"Promise me something?"

She tilted her head up to meet his eyes. "What?"

"Don't disappear on me? I know you'll be far away, and probably working on a ridiculous schedule, but... write to me, from time to time? Don't let us become strangers, Lin."

She didn't say anything at first, just looked at him with those piercing, green eyes, but then she raised herself on her tiptoes and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. It took Tenzin only a second to respond in kind, holding onto her, savouring the moment where he could simply breathe her in, and he could feel more than hear her soft _'okay'_ on his neck.

The breeze was cool when he stepped out into the night. He opened his glider and made his way back to the Island. Below him lay Republic City, with its streets and shops, cars and trains, bridges and people, and thousands of windows – a wild sea of lights; flickering, pulsing, rushing.

Up in the air, everything was quiet.

_end_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you to everyone who has taken the time to leave a comment, kudos & the silent readers, too🌷 you make my tender heart go !! every time


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